Betty Parker-Nyka, D.C.

Betty Lou Parker-Nyka, D.C., age 79 years of Niles, Michigan died peacefully at 4:24 p.m. on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana following a brief illness.

She was born on July 4, 1939 in Griffith, Indiana to Virgil A. and Frances E. (Wentzel) Parker.  She was graduated from Rochester (Indiana) High School, and earned her Registered Nurse credentials from the former Holy Cross Nursing School at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in South Bend.  In 1965, she earned her Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa.  Dr. Parker came to Niles to practice with her uncle, E. S. Gillam, D.C. at the Dixieway Chiropractic Clinic on South Eleventh Street near Ontario Road.  She later established her own clinic on Bell Road, retiring in 2012 after forty-seven years of practicing the healing art.

Betty was a member of Saint Mark Catholic Church in Niles, where she was a Eucharistic Minister and a former member of the parish council.  She was an avid reader, enjoying a variety of subjects, and produced many knit and crochet items.  She was a proficient painter, working mostly in acrylics.

On November 30, 1968 at Saint Mark Catholic Church she married John V. Nyka with whom she celebrated the twenty-seventh anniversary of their wedding prior to his death on March 6, 1996.  She was also preceded in death by her parents, and by a step-son, Vincent Ross Nyka on February 14, 2002.

Surviving family includes her step-son, Leon Nyka of South Bend; a special friend, Dawn Verleye who was the daughter she never had; Betty’s siblings, Doris (& Bob) Lois of Shrub Oak, New York, Nancy (& Robert) Wagner of Bradenton, Florida, Diana (& Jay) Moore of Noblesville, Indiana, and Bill (& Jo) Parker of Logansport, Indiana; and many nieces and nephews of two generations.

The Catholic Funeral Liturgy for Betty Parker-Nyka will be read at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, October 1, 2018 at the Halbritter-Wickens Funeral Home, 615 East Main Street in Niles by the Rev. Thomas King, C.S.C. of Saint Mark Catholic Church, and will conclude with the Committal Rites.  Entombment will be private, later Monday afternoon at the LaSalle mausoleum of Riverview Cemetery in South Bend.

The family will receive relatives and friends on Monday beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the funeral home.  Contributions in memory of Dr. Parker may be made to the American Heart Association https://www.heart.org/; or to the American Diabetes Association http://www.diabetes.org/.