Individual Details
Lynn Cornelius Perkins
(July 12, 1929 - February 23, 1997)
Dr. Lynn Cornelius Perkins and his wife, Louise Davis Perkins died Sunday, February 23, 1997 at their home in Fort Worth, Texas. Services will be held Saturday, March 1, 1997 at 11:00 a. m. at Greenwood Funeral Home in Fort Worth. Memorials may be sent to John Peter Smith Hospital, Department of Family and Community Medicine, 1500 S. Main, Fort Worth, Texas 72104.
Lynn Perkins, the son of Eli Perkins and Hester Perkins Fox, of Abilene, Texas, was born July 12, 1929. He attended Abilene Schools, and received his B. A. at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, and his M. D. from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas. His internship was served at Madison Army Hospital, Tacoma, Washington. He became a captain in the U. S. Air Force and was based at Hickman Field in Hawaii. Upon completion of his military service, he moved to Fort Worth, Texas and opened his practice there in 1958, from which he retired in 1994. Lynn had one sister, V. J. Kemper Horn of Coleman.
Louise Perkins, the daughter of Joseph and Margaret Davis, was born January 2, 1933 in Frederick, Oklahoma. She attended Texas Tech in Lubbock. She is survived by one sister, Nancy Cecil of Granbury. Lynn and Louise married on June 15, 1953 in Lubbock, Texas.
They are survived by three sons: Capt. Steven Perkins of Virginia; Eric Perkins and his wife, Jane, of Fort Worth; and Dr. Mark Perkins, who lives and works in Brazil. Survivors also include two grandchildren, Austin and Caitlin Perkins, children of Eric; and numerous nieces and nephews.
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Lynn Perkins
Louise Perkins
FORT WORTH -- Lynn and Louise Perkins both died Sunday, Feb. 23, 1997, in their home where they had lived for 38 years in southwest Fort Worth.
Memorial service: 11 a.m. Saturday, March 1, at Greenwood Funeral Home.
Memorials: In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to the John Peter Smith Department of Family and Community Medicine, 1500 S. Main St., Fort Worth, Texas 76104.
Lynn Cornelius Perkins was born in Abilene, Texas, in 1929, into a West Texas ranching family. His father, Eli Linton Perkins, gained some notoriety while serving as a coal-stoker on a U.S. warship in the first world war when an oil discovery under land he owned near Ranger turned him into a millionaire. That money lost in the Depression and his father, Eli, killed in an auto accident, Lynn was raised in humble circumstances in Abilene by his mother and big sister.
During the ensuing years, Lynn found and nourished two loves that were to be important for the rest of his life: music and science. Singing in quartets and choral groups while at Abilene High School led to continued involvement in voice during his years at McMurry College and Texas Tech University. A brief period of professional singing with the Starlight Operetta in Dallas convinced him that singing should be a vocation rather than an avocation.
It was through music that he also met the love of his life, his wife, Louise Davis Perkins. She herself was born into a West Texas family, genuine and resolute, but with a literary and academic flair. She worked as the secretary at the church in Lubbock, where Lynn sang and her sister, Nancy, acted as the accompanist. In the words of their children, "They fell in love one sunny afternoon at the church when she heard him practicing solo pieces in the empty sanctuary while she was doing church books and together established a lasting and beautiful love that is a high- water mark for human emotion."
Louise and Lynn married in 1953 while he was in his sophomore year in medical school in Galveston. Trying to start a new family, they opted for residency training with the Air Force. Three sons, Steve, Eric and Mark, were born during the years of training that took them to Washington and Hawaii before returning to Texas to set up permanent residence in Fort Worth. Lynn opened an office as the only physician south of Interstate 820 in 1958 and continued to live and work in the Wedgwood area for the next almost 40 years.
The first years in Fort Worth were tough -- the charge for an office visit was $3 -- and Dr. Perkins took a job every third night covering the emergency room and delivering babies in the obstetrics clinic at St. Joseph Hospital while Louise took care of their own three energetic children at home. There may have been no better introduction to the city than that period of spending days in the clinic getting to know the neighborhood and nights downtown taking care of trauma victims.
Over the years, the medical practice grew and Lynn became more involved at the city hospitals. At St. Joseph, he became chief of family practice, chief of medical records and eventually chief of staff. Interested in the family practice residency program at John Peter Smith, he volunteered at the clinics there and became JPS' chief of staff in 1977. He worked at Harris Hospital as chief of family practice during the 1980s. At all the hospitals he was active on the committees that maintained quality and that evaluated and credentialed new physicians. He also contributed to the medical community by working as president of the Tarrant County Medical Society and serving as chairman of many of its committees. He was a delegate to the Texas Medical Society and was active in the American Academy of Family Practice and served as its county president in 1973.
During these years Louise had returned to school to get a degree in interior design. She divided her time between this work and the endless demands of her three boys, who became competitive swimmers. Once the children were off to college, she began to work in the clinic with her husband. She was a gifted administrator and she and Lynn enjoyed being together, so this move seemed natural. As Lynn said, "She was the office manager during the good times of medicine: when the workers in the doctor's office knew and loved the patients who came in to be seen, and the patients loved those who cared for them. When patients telephoned, they knew Louise would remember them, have their chart within 30 seconds and do everything she could to solve their problem." Many people wondered that husband and wife could work happily in the same office for 20 years, but it seemed to work, and work well.
Lynn and Louise were also deeply involved in the community and civic issues and corresponded regularly with their congressmen and legislators through thousands of letters over the years. Lynn worked with the area universities and with the Tarrant County Medical Society to improve the instruction of physical education teachers in exercise and nutrition. He was elected to the board of directors of Alta Mesa National Bank at its inception over 10 years ago, and was on the Summit Bank Shares Board for the past five years.
In 1988, Lynn was found to have prostate cancer. It appeared that radical prostatectomy was not curative and that he would eventually suffer a relapse of the cancer. After much deliberation, he closed his office where he had cared for Fort Worth families for 35 years and went to work training family practice residents at John Peter Smith in 1994. Aside from staying current in the science of medicine during all those years, the most important feature of his work was the close relationship he developed with his family of patients. His direct approach to working with other physicians and his constant support of nursing and other hospital staff were all focused on bringing better medical care to the patient. His work teaching physicians-in- training at John Peter Smith was another labor of love and he would have liked to have been able to continue for a number of years, as it gave him great satisfaction. He was awarded the outstanding Family Practice Teaching Award for 1994-95.
Lynn and Louise had a relationship that was a model of loving commitment. They loved with steadfastness and joy, as anyone who might have seen them dancing, as they loved to do, could see. When Lynn developed a terminal illness, Louise thought seriously about the future and discussed it with her family. She chose to end her life, as she had lived it, beside her beloved husband of 43 years. This was a thoughtful and private decision that she did not recommend to anyone else. They will be missed by family and friends as well as by the medical community.
Survivors: Dr. and Mrs. Perkins are survived by their three cherished sons, Capt. Steven Lynn Perkins of Norfolk, Va., Mark Daniel Perkins, M.D., of Vitoria, Brazil, and Eric Davis Perkins and his wife, Jane, and their precious children, Austin and Caitlin, all of Fort Worth; Louise's sister, Nancy Cecil of Granbury; Lynn's sister and her husband, Verla Joyce and Cliff Horn of Coleman; and many nieces and nephews.
Greenwood Funeral Home
3100 White Settlement Road, 336-0584
Lynn Perkins, the son of Eli Perkins and Hester Perkins Fox, of Abilene, Texas, was born July 12, 1929. He attended Abilene Schools, and received his B. A. at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, and his M. D. from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas. His internship was served at Madison Army Hospital, Tacoma, Washington. He became a captain in the U. S. Air Force and was based at Hickman Field in Hawaii. Upon completion of his military service, he moved to Fort Worth, Texas and opened his practice there in 1958, from which he retired in 1994. Lynn had one sister, V. J. Kemper Horn of Coleman.
Louise Perkins, the daughter of Joseph and Margaret Davis, was born January 2, 1933 in Frederick, Oklahoma. She attended Texas Tech in Lubbock. She is survived by one sister, Nancy Cecil of Granbury. Lynn and Louise married on June 15, 1953 in Lubbock, Texas.
They are survived by three sons: Capt. Steven Perkins of Virginia; Eric Perkins and his wife, Jane, of Fort Worth; and Dr. Mark Perkins, who lives and works in Brazil. Survivors also include two grandchildren, Austin and Caitlin Perkins, children of Eric; and numerous nieces and nephews.
.................................................................................................................................
Lynn Perkins
Louise Perkins
FORT WORTH -- Lynn and Louise Perkins both died Sunday, Feb. 23, 1997, in their home where they had lived for 38 years in southwest Fort Worth.
Memorial service: 11 a.m. Saturday, March 1, at Greenwood Funeral Home.
Memorials: In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to the John Peter Smith Department of Family and Community Medicine, 1500 S. Main St., Fort Worth, Texas 76104.
Lynn Cornelius Perkins was born in Abilene, Texas, in 1929, into a West Texas ranching family. His father, Eli Linton Perkins, gained some notoriety while serving as a coal-stoker on a U.S. warship in the first world war when an oil discovery under land he owned near Ranger turned him into a millionaire. That money lost in the Depression and his father, Eli, killed in an auto accident, Lynn was raised in humble circumstances in Abilene by his mother and big sister.
During the ensuing years, Lynn found and nourished two loves that were to be important for the rest of his life: music and science. Singing in quartets and choral groups while at Abilene High School led to continued involvement in voice during his years at McMurry College and Texas Tech University. A brief period of professional singing with the Starlight Operetta in Dallas convinced him that singing should be a vocation rather than an avocation.
It was through music that he also met the love of his life, his wife, Louise Davis Perkins. She herself was born into a West Texas family, genuine and resolute, but with a literary and academic flair. She worked as the secretary at the church in Lubbock, where Lynn sang and her sister, Nancy, acted as the accompanist. In the words of their children, "They fell in love one sunny afternoon at the church when she heard him practicing solo pieces in the empty sanctuary while she was doing church books and together established a lasting and beautiful love that is a high- water mark for human emotion."
Louise and Lynn married in 1953 while he was in his sophomore year in medical school in Galveston. Trying to start a new family, they opted for residency training with the Air Force. Three sons, Steve, Eric and Mark, were born during the years of training that took them to Washington and Hawaii before returning to Texas to set up permanent residence in Fort Worth. Lynn opened an office as the only physician south of Interstate 820 in 1958 and continued to live and work in the Wedgwood area for the next almost 40 years.
The first years in Fort Worth were tough -- the charge for an office visit was $3 -- and Dr. Perkins took a job every third night covering the emergency room and delivering babies in the obstetrics clinic at St. Joseph Hospital while Louise took care of their own three energetic children at home. There may have been no better introduction to the city than that period of spending days in the clinic getting to know the neighborhood and nights downtown taking care of trauma victims.
Over the years, the medical practice grew and Lynn became more involved at the city hospitals. At St. Joseph, he became chief of family practice, chief of medical records and eventually chief of staff. Interested in the family practice residency program at John Peter Smith, he volunteered at the clinics there and became JPS' chief of staff in 1977. He worked at Harris Hospital as chief of family practice during the 1980s. At all the hospitals he was active on the committees that maintained quality and that evaluated and credentialed new physicians. He also contributed to the medical community by working as president of the Tarrant County Medical Society and serving as chairman of many of its committees. He was a delegate to the Texas Medical Society and was active in the American Academy of Family Practice and served as its county president in 1973.
During these years Louise had returned to school to get a degree in interior design. She divided her time between this work and the endless demands of her three boys, who became competitive swimmers. Once the children were off to college, she began to work in the clinic with her husband. She was a gifted administrator and she and Lynn enjoyed being together, so this move seemed natural. As Lynn said, "She was the office manager during the good times of medicine: when the workers in the doctor's office knew and loved the patients who came in to be seen, and the patients loved those who cared for them. When patients telephoned, they knew Louise would remember them, have their chart within 30 seconds and do everything she could to solve their problem." Many people wondered that husband and wife could work happily in the same office for 20 years, but it seemed to work, and work well.
Lynn and Louise were also deeply involved in the community and civic issues and corresponded regularly with their congressmen and legislators through thousands of letters over the years. Lynn worked with the area universities and with the Tarrant County Medical Society to improve the instruction of physical education teachers in exercise and nutrition. He was elected to the board of directors of Alta Mesa National Bank at its inception over 10 years ago, and was on the Summit Bank Shares Board for the past five years.
In 1988, Lynn was found to have prostate cancer. It appeared that radical prostatectomy was not curative and that he would eventually suffer a relapse of the cancer. After much deliberation, he closed his office where he had cared for Fort Worth families for 35 years and went to work training family practice residents at John Peter Smith in 1994. Aside from staying current in the science of medicine during all those years, the most important feature of his work was the close relationship he developed with his family of patients. His direct approach to working with other physicians and his constant support of nursing and other hospital staff were all focused on bringing better medical care to the patient. His work teaching physicians-in- training at John Peter Smith was another labor of love and he would have liked to have been able to continue for a number of years, as it gave him great satisfaction. He was awarded the outstanding Family Practice Teaching Award for 1994-95.
Lynn and Louise had a relationship that was a model of loving commitment. They loved with steadfastness and joy, as anyone who might have seen them dancing, as they loved to do, could see. When Lynn developed a terminal illness, Louise thought seriously about the future and discussed it with her family. She chose to end her life, as she had lived it, beside her beloved husband of 43 years. This was a thoughtful and private decision that she did not recommend to anyone else. They will be missed by family and friends as well as by the medical community.
Survivors: Dr. and Mrs. Perkins are survived by their three cherished sons, Capt. Steven Lynn Perkins of Norfolk, Va., Mark Daniel Perkins, M.D., of Vitoria, Brazil, and Eric Davis Perkins and his wife, Jane, and their precious children, Austin and Caitlin, all of Fort Worth; Louise's sister, Nancy Cecil of Granbury; Lynn's sister and her husband, Verla Joyce and Cliff Horn of Coleman; and many nieces and nephews.
Greenwood Funeral Home
3100 White Settlement Road, 336-0584
Events
| Birth | July 12, 1929 | Abilene, Taylor County, Texas | |||
| Marriage | June 15, 1953 | Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas - Fanny Louise Davis | |||
| Death | February 23, 1997 | Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas |
Families
| Spouse | Fanny Louise Davis (1933 - 1997) |
| Child | Steven Lynn Perkins |
| Child | Eric Davis Perkins |
| Child | Mark Daniel Perkins |
| Father | Eli Linton Perkins (1888 - 1933) |
| Mother | Hester Verona Cornelius (1893 - 1985) |
| Sibling | Verla Joyce "V. J." Perkins (1924 - 2000) |