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Robert L. Perkins
Robert L. Perkins passed away Saturday, July 30, 2016, at his home in Oracle. Robert lived in Oracle for 60 years and worked for Magma Copper for 36 years. Robert was a loving father, grandfather, great-grandfather, husband and friend.
Written in his own words, about his life: On April 17, 1932 in Fulton, Missouri, Sam Perkins and Anna Perkins had a new baby boy in their house. They named him Robert Lee Perkins. They told me, when I was old enough to understand, that I weighed 4 pounds at birth and I fit in a shoe box. Big boy, Big Boy. Out of my Mom and Dad’s marriage, they had a total of ten children. five of them reached adulthood and half died before the age of three. The little boy was lucky enough to have one brother and three sisters.
This little boy went to school in a one room country schoolhouse, and, by the way, I was taught by the same teacher for my eight years and missed only one day. After eight years, I went on to high school, but, I was not good in school, so I dropped out after three years. However, while serving in the Army, I took my G.E.D. and completed it and received my diploma. To go on with my life story, after I dropped out of high school, I went to work for International Shoe Company for two years.
Then, in 1951, Uncle Sam called me to fight in the war in Korea.So, in early 1952, I got ready to go. They gave me a few months to get ready. On October 2, 1952 I received my notice to report to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, just a short piece down the road from my home town, to take training to serve in the U.S. Army. I was 20 years old, knew nothing about the world, but, I kind of woke up fast to say, “Hey, this is real!”. I served 17 months in Korea, then reenlisted for three more years to go to Japan; however, that backfired on me and they let me stay for only 14 months. Then the Army sent me to Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
While stationed there I met and married the love of my life, Dolores Sanches. Together, we had seven children: Rosie Evans, Irene Felix, Roberta (Mike) Perkins, Anna Brunson, Rebecca Perkins, Robert (Rhonda) Perkins and Michael Perkins. I am very blessed to have had all these children. I love them dearly. But, my life doesn’t end there, because, they left me with 23 grandkids, 44 great-grandkids and two great-great grandkids.
Services were held Saturday, Aug. 6, at Adair-Avalon Chapel in Oro Valley with a reception following at the Perkins home in Oracle.
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