sentences:  His parents, Ruth Virginia Whiteside ("c." 1893–1952) and Marvel H. Parsons ("c." 1894–1947), had moved to California from Massachusetts the previous year, purchasing a house on Scarff Street in downtown Los Angeles.Their son was his father's namesake, but was known in the household as Jack.The marriage broke down soon after Jack's birth, when Ruth discovered that his father had made numerous visits to a prostitute, and she filed for divorce in March 1915.