Chan Parker

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Chan Parker (born Chan Richardson) is best known as the wife of jazz legend Charlie Parker. She wrote a memoir titled My Life in E-Flat (ISBN 1570032459), which discussed her life with him. She was interviewed about her book and Parker for a Public Broadcasting Service special on him.^{[citation needed]}

Chan Parker, of partial Jewish ancestry, was a dancer and jazz enthusiast. She met Charlie Parker when she was 18, but their relationship was not romantic until a few years later. They had to deal with several problems including his drug use, and racial issues. She complained of taxis not picking him up because of his race, and mentioned that they attracted stares because their relationship was interracial. She indicates that he protected her, to a degree, from both these problems. A bigger difficulty was the death of their daughter Pree, which caused the two to drift apart as they dealt with the loss in different ways.^{[citation needed]}

After his death she married saxophonist Phil Woods and they moved to France. She died in France in 1999.^{[citation needed]}

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Persondata
NAME	Parker, Chan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Dancer, Author
DATE OF BIRTH	29 August 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York City, New York
DATE OF DEATH	9 September 1999
PLACE OF DEATH	Étampes, France