Cecil Willard Parks was born on 11 June 1913 in Franklinville, North Carolina. He was the first of five children born to Ira Clarence and Lena Rivers Parks. He graduated from high school at the beginning of the Depression and lived by doing odd jobs for a couple of years before joining the Army and being posted to the Panama Canal Zone in the mid-30s. In March of 1942 he entered the officer candidate school and in June of that year was commissioned a 2nd Lt. and assigned to the T.I.S. He became captain in May of 1947 and a captain in the Army Reserves in October of 1952. He died on June 26, 1998.