Penny Parker, 1953-2016

Denver’s iconic society and business columnist was an avid golfer.

Jon Rizzi

The year began both with a ball drop in Times Square and a phone drop in Denver. The latter describes my reaction upon receiving a text that writer Penny Parker had passed away in her sleep on January 2 at age 62.

Penny and I had known each other since April of 2002, when she interviewed me for her “On the Town” column in the Rocky Mountain News. Her April 11 piece, which focused on our debut issue, was generally positive but also a bit pointed.

She took me to task for a lack of women in our pages—a problem I had every intention of remedying and she acknowledged as much.

Penny would go on to write a number of features for CAG and also spoke at one of our Beaver Creek Women’s Invitational tournaments.

While most knew Penny for her business and society reporting—both for the Rocky and The Denver Post—she was also, in her words, “an awful but avid golfer,” playing as often as three times a week, almost exclusively at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.

Her husband, Greg Henry, a wonderful writer in his own right, even penned an essay for us in 2007, playfully lamenting how her passion for the game had blown by his “like a Tiger Woods drive past my own tee shot in the fairway.”

The year before that essay appeared, Penny’s love for golf found expression in the Penny Parker Open. The tournament, which took place annually at The Inverness between 2006 and 2011, benefited Sense of Security, a Colorado-based charity that helps breast cancer patients with non-medical expenses (housing, utilities, groceries, transportation, COBRA or insurance premiums, etc.) to enhance their quality of life.

Penny had been diagnosed with the disease in 2005 and courageously shared news about her treatment and recovery. During the tournament’s six-year run, it raised more than $150,000 for Sense of Security

In further support of the organization, she also tapped her vast restaurant connections to stage an annual “Evening of Decadent Delights,” and, after leaving the Post, she often mentioned Sense of Security on her site, blacktie-colorado.com.

According to Executive Director Tim Taravella, Penny was responsible for more than $200,000 in donations—or roughly one-eighth of the $1.6 million raised by the organization since its 2000 inception.

“Penny was a fantastic asset and a wonderful supporter,” Taravella said. “She had a multifaceted impact on the organization and on people’s lives.”

“Penny just got it,” Sense of Security Founder Emerita Vicki Tosher recalls. “She really wanted to help a small organization. She was witty, warm and supportive. She loved what we did. She understood that anyone facing medical expenses can have trouble making ends meet.”

Moreover, Tosher says, “It seemed that every time we got a call, the person would say, 'I heard about you through Penny Parker.' She had the rare talent to make a connection between two or more seemingly unrelated people, organizations or businesses to bring benefit to all concerned.”

Much more than an indefatigable reporter with a keen ear for gossip, she was a generous soul, good friend and an enthusiastic golfer.  

You just know that somewhere up there she’s already filling foursomes with smart new friends and filling her notepad with the juicy nuggets they're giving her.