Rilda Daigle Parker Seletz of Marblehead died peacefully on September 3, 2026 with her children, grandchildren and caregivers around her. She was 95.
She was born in Fort Kent, Maine in 1931 and graduated from the Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene in 1951. Her husbands, Dr. C. Elwood Parker, a dentist, and Dr. Jules M. Seletz, a physician, died before her; she and Jules had 27 years together until his death in 2012, in which they climbed all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot peaks, sailed around the tip of South America and explored Europe while he was stationed in Germany. She gardened, wrote letters by hand to friends and family and kept her sense of humor to the end.
She leaves her daughters, Patricia Parker and her daughter Dakota Smith, and Susan Parker and her children Jason, Bradley and Jessica; Alyssa Isaacson and her family; Carl, Jay and Andrew Seletz and their wives and children; and her nieces and nephews, Christine Polischuk, Kay Piersol, Susan Kenyon, Bob Paradis, Claire Slater and Darlene Paradis and their families. The family thanks her caregivers at Elderly Caregivers and Home Instead, especially Pertunia and Angela.
The funeral service is private, and a celebration of life will be scheduled later. Arrangements are by the Murphy Funeral Home, Salem. The family suggests donations to the American Red Cross, the Marblehead Animal Shelter or the Wounded Warrior Project.
Compiled from information published by Murphy Funeral Home. Photograph courtesy of the family via Murphy Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
