SeniorPartners Spotlight
St. Joseph ’Boomers Having the Time of Their Lives
What are the odds that the vacation of a lifetime – a group tour, no less – would fall on your 25-year wedding anniversary? Just ask Larry and Jacquie Parker of St. Joseph, MO.
Part of the Baby Boomer generation, the Parkers are relative newcomers to the St. Joseph SeniorPartners, but they haven’t wasted any time making the most of their membership.
Semi-Retired
Larry is in his 40th year working at the dental lab he now runs, and he’s nearing retirement. Jacquie retired eight years ago after 30 years teaching middle school and junior high science. Both are active volunteers at church and in their own individual pursuits.
Larry has always been an avid outdoorsman, and now spends a lot of time being a handyman for his children and stepchildren. Jacquie’s diverse interests and talents are many, and retirement has allowed her to explore them fully and frequently — everything from quilling to quilting, cross-stitching to china painting, punch needle to photography.
"Jacquie is so talented, it just boggles the mind," said St. Joseph SeniorPartners Coordinator Barb Scott.
Together, Larry and Jacquie share a passion for traveling and sightseeing, which made the SeniorPartners program a perfect fit.
Alaskan Anniversary
With her skills with needle and thread, Jacquie is naturally a regular at meetings of the St. Joe SeniorPartners "Needlers & Gamers," as well as "Our Bookclub" and the "Ladybugs." About a year ago, she was invited to serve on the SeniorPartners advisory board, a representative group of members that meets quarterly with Barb to consider day trip and extended tour possibilities and also provide feedback on various banking services, products and financial trends. The group was also influential in determining a couple of recent tour destinations, including last July’s Alaskan land tour and cruise.
"Larry and I both had been wanting to go to Alaska, and we kind of planned on going for our 25th anniversary," she said. "When Barb said we might go in summer 2009, I thought how great it would be if it fell on our anniversary. Sure enough, it all worked out."
The actual date coincided with the first formal dinner on the cruise portion of the trip. "The timing was perfect. We got to throw a party on the ship," she said.
Partners for Life
With Larry still busy at work and Jacquie equally busy in retirement, they save time by doing all of their banking online. "It is so convenient, plus we try to do our part to ‘be green,’" Larry said. "Barb has always shared whatever new opportunities Commerce Bank can offer and helped us take advantage of many of them. Our new myRewards Savings account is the most recent example."
They attribute their successful 25-year run in matrimony to a shared trust established long ago, and Larry said it’s been a similar feeling with their bank all along.
"The stability of Commerce is what drew us to the bank. We have always trusted them," Larry added. "We feel that Commerce Bank beat the odds in the failing economy. We trusted them to do the right thing, and we feel they have."
