AL.COM -- Army Sgt. Kenya Parker said he was going to be fine when he started his second tour of Iraq in January. And the Fairfield High graduate was fine until Saturday, when he died unexpectedly in Baghdad of what military officials have called respiratory arrest.

Sgt. Parker was 26 and had spent about five years in the Army. His plans for the future were not clear, but more than a few friends and relatives had told him he ought to do comedy.

"You would never be bored around him," said his sister, LaTonya Stephens.

"He just used to have everybody laughing all the time," said his mother, Diane Parker. "Everybody used to tell him he needed to be a comedian, he needed to be onstage. He just said, `One day, I will be up there.'"

Called Kenny by his family and friends, Sgt. Parker had joined the Army with an eye to making it a career. His mother and sister said he was thinking about getting out after finishing his second tour in Iraq, where he was working as a light wheel mechanic with the 62nd Signal Battalion.

His first tour was last year, from January to August. When he came home, "He didn't really talk about it," his sister said. "He just said it wasn't as easy as it seemed ... . He just said for us to continue to pray for everybody over there."

If Sgt. Parker had any close calls, he didn't mention them, though he did break an arm in a pickup baseball game.

His mother said she talked to her son last week. She said she told him a package of things he wanted - Gummy Bears, Thin Mints Girl Scout cookies, new rap CDs and other items - was on the way. She doesn't know whether he lived long enough to get it.

Besides his mother and sister, Sgt. Parker's survivors include his father, Ronald Parker. His funeral will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church, Fairfield, with burial in G.W. Carver Memorial Gardens.