- An avid underwater photographer.
- First woman President of the Underwater Photographic Society in 1960.
- Organized the International Underwater Film Festival With Al Tilman.
- Helped run the first hyperbaric chamber for civilian divers in California
- Set a woman's depth record to 209 feet (1954)
- Started SCUBA diving in 1951 using one of the first imported Aqualungs.
- Appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine in May 1955.
- She and her husband Parry Bivens experimented several times with LSD during the 1950's.
- Was the third female instructor to graduate from the LA County UICC Program.
- Best known as underwater damsel-in-distress on the TV series Sea Hunt (1958).
- Learned to swim while living near a Wisconsin lake.
- In 2016 Parry was awarded the California Scuba Service Award for her enormous contribution to the California diving scene.
- Supporter of The Women Divers Hall of Fame since its inception in 1999. She was inducted in 2000 in the first group with a total of 72 women.
- Eldest of seven children.
- Inducted into the Cayman Island International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame and received the Beneath the Sea Diver of the Year Award in 2002.
- Parry co-founded the International Underwater Film Festival in 1957 that ran for 17 years. In 1960, she became the first elected woman president of the U/W Photographic Society.
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