Jenny Parks

**Jenny Kate Pulitzer Parks** (born April 8, 1995) is an American educator. She is a main character in the Lost Tales universe.

## Jenny Kate Pulitzer Parks

### Aliases

Jens, Little Parks, Miss Jenny, Miss Parks

### Relatives

Calvin Parks (brother, older)
Calliope Hendrickson (also known as Rachel Parks; sister, older)

Dr. Trace Parks (father)

Harriet Parks (grandmother)

Rev. Wiley Parks (grandfather)

Rodnie Ranger (aunt)

Walker Ranger (uncle)

Caleb Ranger (cousin)

Dr. Montana Ranger (cousin)

Stadler Ranger (cousin)

Dr. Alessandra Matisse Parks (stepmother)

Dr. Rosse Matisse (stepbrother, older)

Lennox Matisse (stepbrother, older)

Dr. Hilary Schubert (step-aunt)

Grace Schubert (step-cousin)

Dr. Truman and Mrs. Joy Schubert (step-grandparents)

Dr. Julianne Buckley (mother)

Kate Buckley (grandmother)

Duncan Shepherd (ward)

## **Early Life**

Jenny Parks was born on April 8, 1995 in Daisy, South Carolina, the daughter of Julianne Parks (*nee* Buckley), an art history professor, and Dr. Trace Parks, a large animal veterinarian. She has one older brother, Calvin, and her older sister Rachel was believed to be stillborn on April 8, 1989. However, Rachel was reunited with the Parks family in spring 2019, going by the name Calliope Hendrickson. Parks is named after her maternal grandmother and the fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer. She later changes her middle name to Joy, after her maternal step-grandmother.

Parks's parents separated in 2000, when she was four years old. She lived briefly with only her father, until her brother moved back in with the family a few months later. Her father remarried in 2001, adding Alessandra Matisse Parks and her two sons, Rosse and Lennox Matisse, to her immediate family.

Parks grew up in Daisy, where her paternal grandfather Wiley Parks is the Presbyterian minister and former town mayor. She attended Daisy Elementary School and Daisy Middle School, where she participated in drama, dance, and music from a young age. She was a member of the Daisy Middle School volleyball team from 2007 to 2009. She went on to attend Daisy High School from 2009 to 2013, where she was involved in choir, dance team, and robotics. From 2013 to 2016, Parks attended Central Carolina University where she studied elementary education. She sang in the CCU choirs and was a member of the Beta Delta Omega sorority. She completed her student teaching in a fourth grade science and social studies classroom. After graduating a year early, Parks attended a one-year graduate program at CCU, graduating in 2017 with a graduate degree in STEAM integration. Parks is certified to teach Kindergarten-9th grade all subjects, 6th-12th grade music, and 6th-12th grade STEM/engineering.

## **Career**

Parks's first job in education was as a graduate assistant at the Central Carolina University School, where she taught 6th-12th grade engineering part-time and intern taught 6th-12th grade chorus part-time for the 2016-2017 school year. Also in the fall of 2016, she became an assistant coach for the Daisy Middle School robotics team, becoming the head coach in the fall of 2019. She taught pre-algebra and an 8th grade transition course at Daisy High School, where she also directed the women's vocal ensemble and co-directed the advanced mixed ensemble for the 2017-2018 school year. She then had a brief position teaching 7th grade social studies at Daisy Middle School for a teacher on maternity leave before moving to pre-k 1 at Daisy Elementary School for the remainder of the 2018-2019 year, missing much of the second semester for medical reasons. In fall 2019, she began teaching first grade at DES, a position she still holds. She has volunteered with Longhorn Robotics of Daisy High School and the Daisy Community Children's choir since 2013, and is currently a volunteer coach for the Junior Longhorn Shooters dance team. Before working in education, Parks worked at a local bakery, was a model for Seersucker Strawberries Boutique, interned at the FIRST headquarters in New Hampshire, was a barista at a small coffee shop in Pearl Island, and briefly worked at a pancake restaurant and an elementary school office in Myrtle Beach. She will begin teaching in a fifth-grade transition program between Daisy Elementary and Middle Schools in the fall of 2021.

## **Personal Life**

Parks's first romantic relationship was with Park Knowles in the fall of 2008, after the two met in a school play at Daisy Middle School. She was briefly involved with Seth Carver in 2010 and Kyler Bolet in 2012. Also in 2012, she had an unexplained relationship with Luke Green. In the summer of 2013, Parks was sexually harassed by Harry Collette at a summer robotics camp. In January 2014, she began dating Lennox Shepherd, who she had met at a Greek event at CCU. They broke up shortly after, and she entered a relationship with Jared Eaton in March 2014. They ended their relationship on friendly terms in January of 2015, but remained in what is referred to as a “situationship.” In the fall of 2015 Parks met Ephram Silvy, a music education student, in their student teaching program and the two dated from November 2015 to May 2016, when she found out he had been cheating on her with various men. After their relationship ended, she became somewhat involved with Jared Eaton again. In the summer of 2017, she met William "Tuck" Haywood while teaching at Daisy High School, and they dated from September 2017 to April 2018. She met Marshall Ross at a robotics fundraiser in November 2017, and despite not being in an official relationship, the two have been together since late 2018. She has said she is asexual.

In the fall of 2014, Parks found her 16-year-old friend Duncan Shepherd passed out on the side of a backroad, leading her to take him in and eventually become his legal guardian. Shepherd lived in her apartment, along with Parks's roommate Naomi Wu and later his wife April Shepherd, from August 2014 to March 2016.

In the fall of 2015, Parks was stung by a bee while working at Centipede Clubhouse and experienced a life-threatening allergic reaction.

In February 2019, Park's car became stuck in a snowdrift and she was asphyxiated by carbon monoxide fumes, leading to a fall a few days later that resulted in a serious spinal cord injury. After a corrective surgery, Parks recovered for a few months in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where she worked in an elementary school as an administrative assistant.

Parks has many hobbies, including singing in her church choir and attending women's group, baking, playing the popular video game Among Us, dancing, spending time with her friends, and a capella singing.

Parks has lived with her best friend Savannah Washburn in a rented house in Daisy, along with various fish and two snails, since the fall of 2016. In fall 2020, a kitchen fire briefly forced them to live in a nearby hotel, the Eloise. She has also lived with Washburn in a townhouse in Manchester, NH in the summer of 2015 and a Pearl Island beach house with various tenants in the summer of 2016.

Parks's parents divorced in 2000, when she was 4 years old. Her father remarried Alessandra Matisse Parks in 2001 and Parks gained two stepbrothers, Rosse and Lennox Matisse, a set of step-grandparents, Joy and Truman Schubert, and her step-aunt Hilary Schubert and daughter Grace. She has a very close relationship with everyone in her step family. She remained in contact with her mother and grandmother very briefly after the divorce, but is now estranged from them. The only time Jenny mentions seeing her mother is when she suffers a life-threatening allergic reaction and Julianne visits her at the hospital.

Parks is a Christian. She attends Daisy Presbyterian Church, where her grandfather Wiley Parks is the minister. She sings alto in the church choir and is a member of the women's group.

Parks's grandfather is the former mayor of Daisy and her older brother Calvin is a future potential candidate for mayor.

Parks drives a maroon 2010 Honda Civic.

Parks owns two neon tetra fish named Ark and Lumpy, as well as two snails named Dean and Woodie. She also maintains three class goldfish named John Cena, The Rock, and Dorothy

Parks is not politically active aside from voting, but she is a registered Democrat. She is sometimes seen wearing an Obama-Biden 2008 sweatshirt.

## **Character History**

Jenny Parks first appeared in the June 2014 work "2 Days," which was set in Pearl Island and featured Jenny and her friends Sara Brown, Darie Kingsley, Kyler Bolet, Katherine ?, and Barrett Rivers spending a summer performing in community theatre shows. She has been portrayed as age 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 24, 25, and 26. She has held many occupations, including a high school student, a barista, an ice cream scooper, a camp counselor, a pediatric nurse, a school nurse, a preschool owner, a bakery worker, a performer, and a teacher, teaching toddlers, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, eighth grade, and high school. She has been in countless situations, friendships, and romantic relationships. She is usually portrayed as anxious, mildly reserved, compassionate, humorous, sweet, introverted, unforgiving, faithful, insecure, helpful, friendly, fun, and somewhat chaotic. She used to speak with a pronounced southern accent, often using southern-isms or quoting her Memaw. Now she is described to speak normally, although sometimes more quietly than she or others would like.

Jenny Parks is described to have blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and pale skin. She sometimes wears glasses and often styles her hair in messy buns, ponytails, or hair clips. She also often describes her desire to dress comfortably or similarly to her middle school students. Throughout her portrayal, Jenny is shown to be a fan of monogramming, but not in recent works. Her stock color is lavender. Fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer was a friend of Jenny's maternal grandmother, but she is sometimes described to resent her products because of her relationship with her mother and grandmother. She is also described to be plus-sized, even modeling plus-size clothes for a local boutique in her late teens. She normally dresses appropriately for teaching, and her style is mostly characterized by late 1990s and early 2000s fashions and occasionally "teacher style."

## **Favorites**

Favorite Color: Lavender

Favorite Dessert: Dark chocolate ice cream

Favorite Sport: Robotics

Favorite Animal: Cows

Favorite Fruit: Strawberries

Favorite Subject in School: Science

Favorite Food: Memaw's pot roast

Favorite Drink: Moscato or iced coffee

Favorite Season: Fall

Favorite Holiday: Christmas