Deanie Parker was an integral figure at Stax Records, serving as the Director of Publicity and Marketing, Artists, and Community Relations from 1963 until 1975. During her tenure, she worked with many internationally renowned performers, including Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the Staple Singers, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave, Richard Pryor, The Dramatics, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, and many others. Her role was crucial in shaping the public image and outreach of the iconic record label located at 926 E. McLemore Avenue in Memphis.
She also wrote, co-wrote, or arranged some 180 songs, including for artists such as Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Sam & Dave, William Bell, the Mad Lads, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd and more.
When Ewarton’s (the last letters of founders Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton) board of directors was founded in 1998 to oversee the creation of the nonprofit Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Stax Music Academy, Parker was tapped to become the first President & CEO of Soulsville. She held this position until 2005, when she established the Soulsville Foundation, the fundraising arm of the organization, serving as its president and to raise money for the museum and academy operations.
Prior to joining Soulsville, Parker was the Vice-President of Communications and Marketing at Regional Medical Center at Memphis (The MED). For nearly a decade (1987-1995) she served as the Assistant Director of Memphis in May International Festival and returned briefly as the Interim Director for the 1996 Festival edition saluting Brazil.
Parker received the University of Memphis University College Alumni Achievement Award in 2003. She was awarded the 2004 Women of Achievement award for Initiative, and in 2006 received a University of Memphis Distinguished Alumni Award and a Diversity Memphis Humanitarian of the Year Award. In 2009, she was awarded two Emmy Awards for the I Am A Man documentary about the 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike in Memphis, for which she was executive producer and title song composer. She is a 2011 Legends Award Honoree for the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis. She has been an advisor for the University of Memphis Alumni Association’s National Executive Board of Directors, she was a Tennessee State Museum Commissioner. and served two terms on the Tennessee Arts Commission. In 2021, Parker received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Independent Music. She also received a Brass Note which was placed on the Beale Street Walk of Fame in 2024.
In 2024, she won two Grammy awards for Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriters Demos for Best Historical Album and Best Liner Notes and was featured in a New Yorker cover story. She was also integral in Stax: Soulsville USA, a four-part documentary series from HBO, which chronicles the songwriters, musicians, writers, and producers who smashed racial barriers and created the signature Stax sound that defined an era and continues to do so today. The documentary series was nominated for two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series – 2024 and Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Program – 2024.
On May 11, 2024, Parker received an Honorary Degree from Rhodes College in Memphis for Doctor of Humanities. Also in May 2024, she was the recipient of a Memphis magazine cover story celebrating Deanie Parker’s Lifetime of Soul.
