Franklin-- 94 year old Frances Russell Perry died peacefully on 8 December 2009 at Milford Care & Rehabilitation Center in Milford, MA where she had been a very well-cared for resident since 2004.
Born Frances Varol Russell on 6 June 1915 in Heber Springs, AR, as the second child of Irma Pearl (Miller) and Luther George Russell, Frances was adopted (with her younger brother & sister) by an older cousin upon the accidental (kitchen fire) death of her mother in 1920. Her adoptive mother, Caroline Louise Himebaugh Browne, was a rare book dealer on New York’s 5th Avenue who introduced Frances to a world far removed from her hardscrabble beginnings in the rural Arkansas… including three book-buying trips to Europe and summers at their branch bookshop in Bar Harbor, ME.
Graduating from Pelham (NY) Memorial High School in 1933, Frances then attended Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School.
In 1936 she married Richard Alden Perry of Dighton, MA and they immediately started a business, Berkley Hills Trout Farm, in Berkley, MA. By 1948 they had five sons and a thriving enterprise supplying private individuals, fish & game clubs, and government agencies throughout New England with Brook & Rainbow trout for stocking of streams and ponds. However, in 1954 Hurricane Carol’s saltwater storm surge killed their 200,000+ trout and destroyed their business.
Frances then assisted with their much smaller Berkley Hills Turkey Farm, and served as the Town Treasurer’s clerk until the early 70s.
Frances and Richard were divorced in 1972. Afterwards, Frances sold the family farm and set off on a solo tour of the US by bus. Along the way she had extended visits in Russellville, AR with her older brother Guy whom she hadn’t seen in 50 years, and with her own oldest son Lawrence, a decorated Air Force Major & Vietnam pilot and his family in Anchorage, AK. She lived in Minneapolis, MN for a year before continuing on to Canada, northern New England, and finally settling near her second son David, and his family in Allenstown, PA.
In 1978, upon David’s sudden death, Frances re-located to Wolfeboro, NH where she was one of the original residents of the Christian Ridge retirement complex…her comfortable home for the next 26 years.
Frances is survived by her sister, Louise Russell Jones of Wolfeboro, NH. She was predeceased by her brothers Albert Russell Browne and Guy Luther Russell.
She leaves three sons: Kenneth A. Perry, and his wife Virginia, of Wolfeboro, NH, Stanley Richard Perry, and his wife Janet, of Masardis, ME, and Rodney Albert Perry, and his wife Claire, of Franklin, MA. She was pre-deceased by her two oldest sons, Lawrence Russell Perry in 1993 and David Alden Perry in 1978. She is also survived by Daughters-in-law Nancy Kunsa Perry of Meriden, CT and Janet Rubadeau Perry-Schaeffer of Walnutport, PA.
She greatly enjoyed each of her 15 talented Grandchildren, including 4 Eagle Scouts, 3 high school Valedictorians, numerous college graduates, several advanced degree-holders, an Oxford grad, a Marine veteran of Iraq, and a Fulbright Scholar. She is also survived by15 nearly-perfect Great-Grandchildren, one of whom earned her PhD in Polymer Chemistry (related to hydrogen fuel cells) just days before Frances’ death.
Donations in her memory can be made to the Activities Fund at the Milford Care & Rehabilitation Center at 10 Veterans Memorial Drive, Milford, Ma. 01457 or to the ETON Instructional Ski Trust Fund; c/o Governor Wentworth Regional School District; PO Box 190; Wolfeboro Falls, NH 03894
Arrangements are under the direction of the Charles F. Oteri & Son Franklin Funeral Home, and condolence messages can be posted to (www.franklinfuneral.com).