Parker Towing Honors Smith, Rubio With Namesake Vessels
Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based Parker Towing Company (PTC) held a christening ceremony March 26 for a pair of towboats named for two of the company’s longest-serving office staff, Beverly Jo Smith, the company’s office administrator, and LaDonna Rubio, longtime executive secretary.
And while the christening was a celebration of Smith and Rubio and the impact they have had on Parker Towing during their more than three decades with the company, the event was also an emotional gathering for the friends, family and caretakers who knew Rubio, who fell ill in the fall of 2023 and was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in early 2024. Rubio passed away the day before the christening.
From Secretaries To Sisters
In 1989, Beverly Jo Smith went to work for Parker Towing as a secretary. In those days, Parker Towing’s office was located on the east bank of the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa, where Parker-Haun Park currently stands. Then, in late 1991, LaDonna Rubio started as secretary at PTC.
Over the years, Smith and Rubio together amassed close to 70 years of experience working at Parker Towing. More than that, though, the pair became the dearest of friends.
“We’ve been through so much,” Smith said. “We’ve had weddings, kids, graduations, family deaths. We’ve been through the whole nine yards over the years. And we’d hang out with each other, going to lunch or different functions together, so we were coworkers, but we were like family. She used to tell people that I was her sister from another dad, and I tell people she was my sister from another mom.”
When Rubio became ill, Smith said she’d visit her at her home in Northport or when she was in the hospital in Birmingham, Ala.
“I traveled with her daughter up there to see her,” Smith said. “I’d go see her after work at her apartment in Northport. We talked almost every day before she got real sick. I’d have to call her and tell her what’s going on at PTC. When I tell you she was my sister, that’s exactly what I mean.”
Smith said she was “on cloud nine” when Chas Haun, executive vice president of Parker Towing, told her that the company was renaming the former mv. Mary Ethel after her and the former mv. Touchstone Energy after Rubio.
“He told me the board had voted to name a boat after Donna and me,” Smith said, “and I just went to boohooing. I was so shocked. Then, we called Donna and told her, and she went to boohooing too.”
Rubio’s daughter, Mary Miller, said she remembers that day as well.
“She called me, and she was crying,” Miller said. “Of course, I thought it had something to do with that she didn’t feel good, but she said, ‘They’re naming a boat after me.’ Mom’s loved working there so much, and I know they appreciate her, but it’s such a huge honor to have a boat named after you. And honestly, a lot of the hospice nurses said they really do think that’s what kept her going. It’s so crazy that she died the day before.”
Miller described the few months between when her mother started feeling bad and when she was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the bile ducts. Following the diagnosis, Rubio began chemotherapy and, for a while, was able to work off and on.
“Parker towing was great, working with her schedule for chemo and just being very flexible,” Miller said. “In the beginning, she was able to go back to work after her chemo treatment, literally the day after, and she did that for months.”
Miller said continuing to work was one of her mom’s main desires during her cancer treatment.
“She wanted to be able to work and she wanted to be able to spend time with her grandkids,” Miller said. “That and to get better was her main focus.”
Throughout her mom’s journey with cancer, Miller said, she received incredible care from her nursing team, which celebrated with Rubio when she found out about her boat.
“That’s what she talked about all the time,” Miller said. “She was like, ‘I gotta get my hair done because I’ve got a boat christening to go to.’ And they were all like, ‘Well, we want to come.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely, all of y’all can come,’ because it was just so special for her.”
And sure enough, many of the sitters and nurses from Hospice of West Alabama who cared for Rubio were there for the christening.
“You don’t ever forget the people that are there with you in the most helpless times of your life,” Miller said.
Miller said at first she didn’t think she was up to attending the christening just a day after losing her mother. Thankfully, her husband, Brandon, who works at Parker Towing, convinced her to be there.
“He said, ‘Whatever you want to do is fine, but I think you can do it, and your mom would want you to be here,’” Miller said.
In the end, Miller said the christening felt like it brought some closure and warmth among the grief.
“It was really good meeting all these people that I’d heard about for so many years,” Miller said. “I knew all these stories but had never actually met them, so it was really good to meet those people.”
Christening The Vessels
Smith’s brother, Warren Lavender, opened the christening with an invocation. Then, Tim Parker Jr. described where the mv. Beverly Jo Smith will typically work.
“She’ll be working on the Gulf Coast and in the Mobile Harbor area a lot,” Parker said. “It’s an important part of our operation and named after a very important person.”
The mv. Beverly Jo Smith was built by Mississippi Marine in Greenville, Miss., in 1970. The vessel measures 60 feet by 21.5 feet and is powered by a pair of Caterpillar main engines that produce 800 hp.
Standing on the deck of her namesake vessel, Smith, with her son, Damon, looking on, smashed a bottle of champagne over the railing to officially christen the newly renamed boat into the Parker Towing fleet.
Parker then introduced Rubio and her namesake vessel to the crowd.
“She fought the good fight, and the good Lord took her home yesterday,” Parker said. “We appreciate her family and some people from hospice who are here today.”
Parker said the mv. LaDonna Rubio will operate in the Tuscaloosa area.
Rubio’s son, Adam, then christened the vessel, with Miller looking on.
The mv. LaDonna Rubio was built in 1979 by Albert Ortis Boat Building in Krotz Springs, La. The vessel measures 52 feet by 22 feet and is powered by a pair of Detroit diesels that produce 800 hp.
“These boats push more than just cargo—they carry the names and legacies of two women who have meant the world to this company,” Haun said after the christening. “Donna was and Beverly continues to be more than a colleague. They’re family to so many of us, and naming these vessels after them is one small way we can honor their lasting impact.”
Tim Parker III, president and CEO of the company, and his cousins Alison Phillips, director of communications for Parker Towing, and Haun, who are brother and sister, all grew up with Smith and Rubio as mainstays in the company’s office.
“When I was young, I would often come to the office with my mom, Alice Haun,” Phillips said. “As long as I can remember, Ms. Beverly and Ms. Donna have been a steady presence at the front desks. They brought warmth and joy but also knew how to lend a firm hand when needed. Some of our wheelmen would drop by to visit with them now and then, and whatever stories they shared must’ve been hilarious, because the sound of Donna and Beverly laughing would carry clear across the building. That laughter was contagious. It always made me smile.
“Together,” she added, “they helped create a space that made the office feel like family.”
An Advocate For The Industry
Smith said, in her more than three decades with the company, she’s come to view part of her job as helping people become familiar with what Parker Towing does.
“If I had a dollar for every call I got about towing a car,” Smith said, “I would have retired a long time ago. I tell them I work for a towboat company that hauls commodities on the waterways with towboats and barges. A lot of people don’t even pay attention to these boats going up and down the Black Warrior River. They’re right here in Tuscaloosa, so you know they don’t know about other companies that travel on the other waterways.”
She also is an encourager for new recruits that walk into the office.
“I tell them that I’ve been here over thirty-something years and how, if you do well out there, you can end up being a captain or a pilot,” Smith said. “I tell them it’s a good company with good benefits.”
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Featured photo caption: The mvs. LaDonna Rubio and Beverly Jo Smith moored at Parker Towing Company’s dock in Northport, Ala., March 26, the day of their christening. (Photo by Frank McCormack)
