Everyone tells the same story about Judy Perkins. At her flower and gift shop in Sultan, she was a soft touch.
It wasn’t uncommon for her to give merchandise away at Touch of Class, her Main Street business.
“On Mother’s Day, if a little kid wandered in and said, ‘I’m looking for something for my mommy,’ Judy would say, ‘Well, how much do you have?’ If the child said a dollar, that child went out with a flower or little gift,” said Marlene Wilson, one of Perkins’ many friends.
On Oct. 29, Judith Irene Perkins died from brain cancer at age 64. Many are suffering the loss of a woman whose life touched the young and old, the poor and the politically connected.
“At prom time, she gave out a lot of corsages and boutonnieres to kids who couldn’t afford them,” said Cathy Pince, Perkins’ daughter. “Just because they couldn’t pay didn’t mean they got carnations. Everyone got a rose.”
Pince, of Arlington, used to do bookkeeping for the business. “I’d say, ‘Mom, now you can’t.’ But she gave a lot away.” Perkins loved spoiling her own grandchildren, Pince said, “and she was very good to the children in Sultan.”
A Seattle native, Perkins also leaves her husband of 43 years, Gary; three sons, Troy and Ryan Perkins of Everett, and Tony, who lives in Utah; six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
“It’s hard to talk about this without crying,” said Dr. Mark Raney of Sky Valley Family Medicine in Sultan. He was her physician and friend.
“I got to know her as a community activist,” said Raney, who has a Sultan City Council member. “Judy was involved in the schools, she was always there, donating time, talent, money.
“As I got involved in politics, Judy became a great adviser. She’d tell you what you needed to hear.”
Perkins was an outspoken advocate when the Sultan clinic was threatened with closure last year, Raney said. The Medalia Medical Group wanted its doctors to move to Monroe. With help from Valley General Hospital’s foundation and private donors, the clinic was spared.
“Judy was a cheerleader,” Raney said. “She’d say she didn’t want to go to Monroe and have to take a number. She always said what she thought.”
Marlene Wilson’s business, Larry’s Auto Parts, is four doors from the shop Perkins ran for nearly 20 years. The two became friends through the Sultan Chamber of Commerce. Perkins had served as chamber president.
“She was a spotlight on Main Street,” said Carolyn Eslick, the Sultan chamber’s current president. “Folks were in and out of her store almost hourly, talking business and city issues.”
Perkins and Wilson worked to get planter boxes and hanging baskets downtown. “That first summer, the city didn’t have anybody to water,” Wilson said. “She and I were out there with a stepladder. We were quite a pair.”
Wilson misses their day-to-day bond. “She’d drop in to see me every morning. We’d sit and have coffee and a cookie. Or I’d go to her shop and have lunch. She had a table in the back,” Wilson said.
Donna Marshall, manager and vice president at Coastal Community Bank in Sultan, has great memories of the flower shop. “I remember her in the back room, having a glass of wine and a cigarette. We used to sit there and solve the world’s problems.
“You either liked Judy or you didn’t, there was no gray area,” Marshall added. “She got under your skin and just grew.”
Perkins didn’t drive, and friends gave her rides when her husband was out of town. “Between Marlene and me, Judy would force us to meetings we didn’t want to go to,” Marshall said. “We had a lot of fun.”
Raney said both Judy and Gary Perkins have been “so generous, but they don’t want people to know.”
“She left a huge hole in this town,” the doctor said. “One of Judy’s last challenges to people, they’re going to have to fill that hole. I think she made that hole bigger on purpose, to inspire people to do more.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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