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- StarNews, Wilmington, North Carolina, Tuesday, June 22, 2019
Mary Jeanette Perkins Bass
September 9, 1932 to March 30, 2019
Jeanette, next to the youngest of 12, was predeceased by all her siblings, except Virginia Chastain and Betty Butz. Her parents were, John Wesley Perkins and Lela Chavis Perkins. Jeanette's youngest son, Gregory Allen Bass and his son, Clay Allen (Bass) Scherer, both predeceased her. Immediate family survivors include her daughter Vicki Lynn Bass McGraw (David) with their 4 children and 11 grandchildren; and son Michael Eugene Bass (Janet Edwards Bass). Jeanette's talents included art, gardening and music. She consistently entered her prize winning objects of art and gardening in the County Fair and other competitions. Though she never had any music or piano lessons, she fluently played the piano at home and in her Church. The life lessons she taught her own children were repeated to several small children she kept for a few working parents. Those lessons are best expressed by her Grandniece, Amy Martin Davis: "Aunt Jeanette was a big part of my life as a very young child. I love how she always wore clothes with strawberries printed on them. She used to collect tiny lipsticks for the girls to play with. I remember the dark deep red fingernail polish she used to wear. And that she taught me how to play "this old maid" and "hi ho the cherry-o". She taught me how to make a bed with not a single wrinkle in the sheets, how to sweep a porch clean, how to eat my food so I got a balanced amount of meat and vegetables, and how to eat my cereal so that the last of the milk and cereal were both gone with the last bite and the same time. She taught me how to properly appreciate a honeysuckle flower, sour grass, and blackberries growing in the back yard. She taught me how to make little ghosts with tissues to decorate the trees with on Halloween, and that the smoke from the fire always followed beauty. I remember her talent...the beautiful detailed artwork she made from corn kernels and seeds. I remember how much she loved her hydrangeas! I remember how she used to make me laugh with funny rhymes and ways of saying things backwards or flip flopping words. She took me to have my very first ice-cream cone at Dairy Queen. My favorite thing she ever made were chocolate covered peanut butter balls and popcorn made with loose corn kernels in oil. I remember a garden on a hidden path in the trees behind her house that had sunflowers, strawberries and raspberries. I remember how she took care of me when I got stung by yellow-jackets under my knees swinging on the swing in her backyard. I remember how we used to find blue robin eggs in her yard and she taught me how to listen for the quails because they said "Bob White?" I used watch little house on the prairie every morning at her house before leaving for kindergarten while tried to catch a few more minutes of sleep before the start of the day. She spent a lot of real, quality time with me, and I believe I do appreciate nature and life's simple beauty all around me in part because of this precious time we had together when I was 4 and 5 years old. This is a gift that I will always be grateful for, and I will treasure these memories all my life." Later in life, she worked in a school cafeteria, drove a school bus and became the county's first school bus monitor. She worked with perfect attendance almost every year. It was her love for kids that gave her the joy of working in the school system. She took great pride in the responsibility of getting children to and from their designated schools and interacting with them in the cafeteria. Jeanette will be remembered by her family as a Mother, a teacher, artist, gardener, musician, care-giver, comedian, and friend. Memorial gifts may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, P.O. Box 1000, Dept 142, Memphis, TN 38148.
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Bassett Family Association Database
, d. 25 May 2011, Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina