October 2, 2019
Perkins, Florence C.
Florence Cushing Perkins, beloved wife of the late Robert Forbes Perkins, passed away peacefully on September 27, 2019 at the age of 98. Born in San Francisco in 1921 to John Eldridge Cushing and Isabel Grace Beaver, her ancestors traveled by ship from Hingham, Massachusetts and settled in Mill Valley, California near San Francisco in 1850. Mrs. Perkins attended Vassar College, returning to San Francisco during the early 1940s where she met her husband, Forbes, a lieutenant commander in the Navy, who became an aviator during WWII. They married in 1942 and had a beautiful, long and loving marriage. After the war they moved to Massachusetts, first living in Needham, and then moving to Manchester-by-the Sea where they raised five children. Mrs. Perkins served as president of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union in Boston and the Chilton Club. She was an active member of the North Shore Garden Club and was instrumental in establishing gardens at Beverly Hospital. As a member of the Trustees of Reservations, she helped establish the Friends of Misery Island. Mrs. Perkins was an avid supporter of the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the Quebec-Labrador Foundation. Flo and Forbes were adventurous sailors, and lifetime members of the Manchester Yacht Club and the Cruising Club of America. Flo had a great sense of humor. She loved proverbs, one of her favorites being; “Never trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.” She is survived by her five children Evelyn, Isabel, Robert, Florence, and Thomas, and four grandsons, Marshall and Elliott Agnew and Thomas and Robert Perkins. A funeral service will be held on Friday, October 11, 2019 at 10 am at the Manchester Yacht Club, Tuck’s Point Road, Manchester, MA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Florence Perkins to the Massachusetts Audubon Society.