Daisy Ellen Farran Wilkins Caress, 93, of Parsons died at her home at 9:02 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, 2011.

She was born on Oct. 22, 1918, to L.D. and Mary Ellen (Johnson) Farran at home in Parsons.

Daisy attended Parsons schools, graduating from Parsons High School in 1936 and Parsons Junior College in 1938.

She clerked in her family’s grocery store from 1933 to 1938. She then became a clerk and assistant cashier at J.C. Penney in Parsons until her marriage in 1941 to Charles S. Wilkins. They divorced in 1946.

After taking classes at the Parsons Business College, she was hired as the bookkeeper for the Parsons Singer Sewing Machine Co. in 1947. In addition to bookkeeping, she gave sewing lessons and demonstrated the machines. She always stated that her experience with the public led her to her career path of a licensed master social worker. She became a home visitor for the Labette County Welfare Department from 1948 to 1950. From 1950 to 1951, she took the one–year position of assistant superintendent at the Wichita Children’s Home in Wichita. When the Parsons Epileptic Hospital became the Parsons State Hospital and Training Center in 1951, she was hired as the acting director of the Social Work Department.

She married Emmet H. Caress in 1954. She received a bachelor of science of education degree from Pittsburg State University in 1960 and earned a master of science degree in social work from the University of Missouri in 1965. She became director of the Social Work Department at PSHTC in 1965 and held that position until her retirement in 1983.

During her career, she was a social work field instructor for Pittsburg State University, University of Kansas and Missouri University, an adjunct faculty instructor for interdisciplinary studies related to developmental disabilities at Labette County Community College and was a staff instructor and consultant for the state hospital’s interdisciplinary training programs. In May 1968, she was chosen to travel to Edinburgh, Scotland, as an international exchange social work consultant in mental retardation at Gogarburn Hospital and other related institutions. In 1970, she was a member of the SEK Regional Planning Committee for the White House Conference on Children and Youth. She was inducted into Who’s Who of American Women in 1979.

Her professional and community memberships included the Academy of Certified Social Workers; National Association of Social Workers; Kansas Conference on Social Work; American Association on Mental Deficiency; American Society for Hospital Social Work Directors; Kansas Council for Children and Youth; International Transactional Analysis Association; AARP board member and legislative chair; Kansans for the Improvement of Nursing Homes; Parsons Alzheimer’s Support Group; Life member, O.E.S. Mizpah Chapter of Santa Maria, Calif; life member, American Legion Auxiliary, Parsons Unit 56; V.F.W. Auxiliary, Parsons No. 704; and Wesley United Method Church.

Her parents; her only sibling, John E. Farran; and her husband, Emmet H. Caress, preceded her in death. She is survived by her daughter, Ellen Wilkins Wolf; her grandson, Jason Wolf; and two great-grandchildren.

The service will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at Carson-Wall Funeral Home. Burial will be in Memorial Lawn Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the Proud Animal Lovers Shelter or to Operation Bright Touch and may be left at or sent to the funeral home at Box 942, Parsons, 67357.

Online condolences may be left at www.wallfuneralservices.com.