It is with great sadness that we must report that Eleanor Long Perkinson passed away from complications of Parkinson’s Disease at Life Care Ooltewah Hospice on October 24, 2023.
Eleanor was born on August 12, 1934, in Chattanooga Tennessee. She married Jack Perkinson of Riceville in 1954 and became an Army Wife where Captain Perkinson was assigned as the Public Information Officer of Fort Ord, California. The tiny officer’s quarters kitchen window looked directly over the Monterey Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean and she let everyone in the family know that she cried when they were reassigned to Fort Benning, Georgia.
The Perkinson’s became parents in December 1956 with the birth of Jack Scott Perkinson.
The family was on the move constantly both in and out of the Army.
A daughter Melanie Nugent was born in Rock Hill, South Carolina and today Melanie and her husband Pat Nugent reside in Georgia. Jack and Eleanor had twin granddaughters Rachel Alexandra Allen and Sara Rudelich, whom they doted on constantly.
She had two great-grandchildren that she was very proud of, Max and Eleanor (Ellie).
Jack and Eleanor’s post-active duty Army lifestyle included living in the states of Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Georgia. In Georgia, Eleanor worked and retired from the Georgia Department of Labor where she supervised the unemployment office in Milledgeville, Georgia. Jack was President of Perky Cap company which was a major community employer in Eatonton Georgia for 17 years, which manufactured baseball caps, visors, screen-printed T-shirts, and embroidered shirts for the Atlanta Olympics. Jack pre-deceased Eleanor in 2004 and Eleanor moved in 2015 to The Villages, Florida where she lived for two years and then a Macon Georgia retirement community eventually realizing her family roots were in Cleveland, Tennessee and she returned to Cleveland, Tennessee, in 2018 after the death of her sister Gloria Jones to be closer to her family.
Eleanor is survived by her son, Scott and his husband Jerry O’Leary; daughter, Melanie Nugent and her husband Pat; granddaughter, Sara Rudelich; great-grandchildren, Max and Ellie; sister, Margaret (Gary) Godfrey; several nieces and nephews.
According to her wishes, her remains were interred in the Riceville Cemetery in Riceville, TN at 2 p.m. Sunday, October 29, 2023, with graveside religious services rendered by Rev. Curtis McKee, next to her husband and alongside her granddaughter Rachel Alexandra who preceded her in death in 2019. Instead of flowers, please visit Eleanor Long Perkinson’s Tribute Page at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research at https://tribute.michaeljfox. org/tribute-page. php?id=2728&np=true Arrangements entrusted to Poole Funeral Home at Fike Chapel, 2415 N Ocoee Street, Cleveland, TN 37311.