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SEPTEMBER | PAGE 68 | 2015 B Y R E B E C C A S H E R M A N . P H O T O G R A P H Y M A X B U R K H A L T E R . A R T D I R E C T I O N M I C H E L L E A V I Ñ A . H A I R A N D M A K E U P T O N Y A R I N E R . PAMELA PARKER, MATRIARCH O F T H E B E L O V E D K R I S P E N H O M E D E S I G N S T O R E , IS DANCING HER HEART OUT. P amela Parker labored 29 years to build her solid reputation in the Houston retail and design world. But one of her most vivid memories is not a fine French fauteuil spied at the Paris flea or the rush that comes with making a big sale, but the blunt prognosis her doctor delivered in 2006. "He told me I was going to die soon," says Parker, proprietor of the venerable River Oaks-area home design emporium Krispen. Her doctor didn't need to list the reasons for her imminent demise, Parker was living them every day: Her diabetes was out of control, she had sky-high blood pressure, and her kidneys were shot. She'd already had a quarter of one breast removed in a cancer scare. Despite multiple surgeries, her knees had given way 15 years earlier, often forcing her to use a wheelchair. She couldn't do her own grocery shopping and could no longer even stand on her own. "I was in terrible pain," she says. Her body was failing at a rapid rate, and the cause was abundantly clear: "I weighed 340 pounds," Parker says, her voice cracking at the painful memory. "I can't believe I ever weighed that much." After a pause to collect herself, she says, "I decided to take drastic action and have the most radical surgery possible." Gastric bypass, for someone of her compromised health, was risky. But for Parker, the benefits were immediate. "Before I left the hospital, my blood pressure became normal as well as my sugar levels, and I no longer needed medication for either," she says. The pounds melted away. In one year, she had shed half her body weight, 170 pounds. But two years later, unable to lose additional weight and with excess flesh around her stomach, she consulted another surgeon about a tummy tuck. The procedure was again enormously risky, and the recovery time would be long, he told her. Essentially, an incision would be made 360 degrees around her middle and 18 pounds of skin removed. "He told me that before I could have the surgery, I'd need to exercise hard to build up stamina," Parker says. Trouble was, she hated exercise; she didn't even like walking. "He said, 'Why not start salsa dancing?' That was something I thought I could do." She hit the dance floor hard, taking lessons four days a week from two different instructors. Five years and a handful of successful reconstructive surgeries later (including one to remove excess skin from her face), Parker's life has been transformed by dance. Once hobbled by obesity and sickness, she's traded a size-24 tent dress for a size-8 custom-made salsa gown from Gordy Designs, and a wheelchair for custom rhinestone- encrusted high heels. "I'm 68, but I act 48," she says. In March of this year, she entered her first professional ballroom competition, the Royal Ball in Los Angeles, with her full-time dancing partner and instructor, 27-year-old Stefan Golubovic. "He said, 'This is your first competition, so don't expect much,'" she recalls. Performing in the International Latin style she prefers, Parker snagged first-place ribbons in all nine events she'd entered in the Bronze over-60 age group. "I was floating on air," she says. This past summer, she and Golubovic took nine more first-place ribbons at the international Millennium Dancesport Championships in Tampa. Private coaching sessions from British International Latin champion Shirley Ballas and professional dancer Louis Van Amstel of Dancing with the Stars fame are prepping her to advance to the Silver category at a competition in October. T he road to Parker's ruined health was paved with grueling 14-hour work days, mall fast food and a sedentary lifestyle. But, as with most of us, that's not how things started out. In her early 20s and fresh out of UT Austin, the Houston native worked as a tax accountant for interior designers and architects. "I learned so much about their business just by looking at their records," she says. After her father died in 1984, she ditched the calculator, moved to Paris and took cooking lessons at the Cordon Bleu with the intent of opening her own catering business in Houston. BRINK ON THE Pam Parker at her bedroom desk.