AS THE late afternoon sun cast its last shadows over the Kentucky woods, she limped into the open field, her young fawn following along playfully.
“Take my coat off,” James “Skip” Parkes said to his grandson-in-law, Jim Cortner, who watched over Skip’s shoulder through binoculars.
The small wooden hut blended naturally with the surroundings, camouflaging Skip, Cortner, and the resort’s hunting guide. Almost immediately, a buck approached from the left and another from the other side.
“How about the right one, Jim?” Skip inquired as he set his sights on it.
Informed of its broken antlers, Skip quickly but smoothly swung his rifle to the left, zeroed in, and pulled the trigger, dropping the buck where it stood. The trophy deer, which scored right at 200 on the Boone and Crockett Club scorecard, was the second taken by 94-year-old Skip within one month last year. The other, harvested in Texas, was a nontypical deer, scoring 233 5/8 with 27 points and a 28- inch spread.
His love for hunting is exceeded only by his love for his late wife, Martha, who passed away in September 2023. An avid hunter and fisherman since childhood, he missed several hunting seasons due to caring for his wife. He believed his last hunt was already behind him, but Cortner had other plans.
“I encouraged him. He can still go a little bit. He didn’t think he could, but he realized he can still [hunt] a little,” said Cortner.
His days of climbing with a tree stand are behind him, but today, blinds with only a few steps up and a propane heater make hunts accessible. For everything that’s changed since he began deer hunting, the thrill of shooting the big bucks has never diminished.
“You can’t wait. Anytime you get a chance, you better get it right then because they get away in a hurry — just disappear,” Skip declared about deer. But it’s as much about true love, too. He knows about matters of the heart, his record rivaling his hunting career.
It was a high school double date. His good friend, Colman Riddle, insisted he go with him, but experience taught Skip a thing or two about blind dates.
“I’d learned there’s always a good-looking girl, and, of course, he’s dating her,” Skip said, threatening to beat Riddle with a baseball bat if it turned out to be the case. “I met the girl I married. We both fell in love that night and were together for the next 75 years.”
Marrying Martha, the boy who’d grown up hunting and fishing with his family became the husband and father who often filled his free time outdoors year-round. Hunting and fishing were part of the rhythm of their days. Martha always got up early to make sure the love of her life had a good breakfast before he left for the outdoors, never complaining.
Skip recalled his earliest white-tailed deer hunts on Carter’s Mountain in Franklin County when the state’s first deer hunting season opened. Hunters were allowed to harvest two deer, signaling that the deer populations across the state were growing, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Federation’s website.
“You’d sit for days — snow, wind, rain — and wouldn’t see a deer for hours upon hours, from daylight to dark, and may not see any,” he said.
Herd management successfully led to more frequent sightings and larger deer, and Skip continued to pursue them. He shoots only bucks, and his passion feeds others. Tennessee’s Hunters for the Hungry partners with area meat processors to provide fresh, lean meat to citizens in need. For more than 25 years, Skip donated his venison through the program, helping stock area food banks, soup kitchens, and shelters feeding hungry families.
The reels of his memories highlight a lifetime of trophies from local hunts and those in Canada, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas, Alabama, Illinois, and Kentucky, among others. But his memories of Martha outshine them all, and their theme song, Vince Gill’s “Look at Us,” provides the soundtrack. In an unforgettable display of his love and dedication to her, he took Martha to a Vince Gill Christmas concert for their 72nd wedding anniversary. The holiday songs stopped as Gill acknowledged the Parkes’ special occasion and sang their song. For a moment, the world and the Ryman Auditorium belonged just to them.
As the song’s last notes faded, the audience erupted in applause, all captured on video by a stranger seated nearby. Today, replaying it is bittersweet but priceless. Many hunt for such a true, lasting love and never find it. Skip might have missed the trophy of his life if he had not said yes to a blind date.
“I’ve been blessed far beyond what I deserve,” he said. GN
