Cover photo for Michele Perkins's Obituary
Michele Perkins Profile Photo

Michele Perkins

d. January 24, 2015

Michele Perkins

On the cool day of February 2, 1974, Michele Perkins smiled and laughed for the first time. Mike and Vadis Perkins - her loving parents - fell in love with that smile and many more would fall victim to its light and shining presence for the next 40 years. That smile and laugh that could destroy rotten moods, brighten the cloudiest day, and melt the coldest hearts left us this past Saturday - and now it's your job. There wasn't a day passed that Michele didn't bring joy to someone, somewhere with that smile. There may have been rough days but there were few where that laugh did not clamor across the sky and make someone take notice. Despite what may be going on, something was special enough to bring out that laugh - that loud, riotous hundred-bell-ringing laugh. It may have been a 4th grader's knock-knock joke (fourth graders have the BEST knock-knock jokes) or a confused teenager's essay on true love. No matter what, that smile and that laugh would roar across the landscape, toppling all the negativity it met. Gracelyn Elizabeth, her daughter, has heard that laugh and been on the best end of that smile for 11 years - Michele's smile got a lot bigger the day that little girl came into this world and it never stopped beaming. A knowing smile and a mother's laugh are theater and symphony to a daughter and the music will long live on with her. Her sister Beth (Chad) Wold knows all about it. She will remember it as the combination that could ease the tension before mom and dad found out. It was the smile that helped her through the difficult decisions and the laugh that taught her more about the ephemeral problems of growing up and the true meaning of "One of these days, you will look back on this and laugh," while she laughed, incessantly. Michele may have been the champion of the laughing smile, but Marsha Bilbo taught her how to earn it. The sister in everything but blood gave Michele the material she needed to smile and laugh for the better part of her life. Best friends are like that. "Michelle, stop laughing or you'll wreck the van..." She's going to be missed by Aunts Ruth Hargis, Betty Kay(Grady) Marshall and Brenda Perkins, Uncle Charles W. Perkins and Uncle Allen( Georgeanna) Hargis. They will miss her stories and catching up on the finer points of public school administration. Her godsons Travis Pugh and Kaleb Ellis will have to look to someone else to smile and laugh at their latest exploit but that won't be hard. She has left behind cousins and friends that were considered family that will also miss her and her smile. She was an educator, director, and devoted assistant principal for 17 years. Her laugh bounced around the halls of Ocean Springs High School, Perk, USM and the University of South Alabama where she learned her craft. The classrooms of St. Martin East Elementary will echo with her laugh and be quieter and reverent until someone - or some student - will say something funny and through the snickers and the giggles and the "Shhhhhhh's", someone will hear it, faintly at first, and as it grows louder in the memory of everyone who ever heard it, they will remember that smile. She will be sadly missed by the students and faculty at St. Martin Middle and St. Martin East that had the privilege of knowing her and her infectious laugh. It's quiet now. More quiet than the county has been in a while. She's gone on to a different place - a place where there are no cloudy days and nothing is negative and its never cold. She will be reunited with maternal grandparents, Robert and Betty Hargis and paternal grandparents, Charles and Nettie Mae Perkins. So do us all a favor and smile. Get on with it and laugh. We need to see it. We need to hear it. Arrangements have been made at Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home in Ocean Springs, Ms. Visitation is on Wednesday, January 28th from 6-8pm. Service is scheduled for Thursday, January 29th at 11 am. Both will take place at Bradford O'Keefe Funeral Home on Porter Avenue in Ocean Springs. Interment to follow at Crestlawn Memorial Park, Ocean Springs, MS. Pallbearers will be: Jim Kelly, Ken Ellis, Jim Davis, Gerald Pugh, Jamie Wright, George Zorn, and Kevin Graham. In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to a benefit account for Gracie Beth Graham. Donations should be made at Bancorp South.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Michele Perkins, please visit our flower store.

Past Services

Visitation

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

6:00 - 8:00 pm

Bradford O'Keefe Funeral Home - Ocean Springs

911 Porter Avenue, Ocean Springs, MS 39564

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Service

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Starts at 11:00 am

Bradford O'Keefe Funeral Home - Ocean Springs

911 Porter Avenue, Ocean Springs, MS 39564

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Cemetery

Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home - Gulfport

59 Wayside Rd, Stuart, VA 24171

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