James Elwood Perry

The Perry family consisted of five girls and three boys, but one boy died after 13 months. Jim and his younger brother Wally learned how to stick together. 

He was named after his grandfather, a yardmaster for the Pennsylvania Railroad at the turn of the century. Jim’s father started work as a pipefitter and then a carpenter, but later turned to the railroad and became a clerk. Jim’s start was similar; his first job was brazing metal, which is like soldering except it makes a closer and stronger fit. Wally started his working life as a bank teller but after that he often followed in his brother’s footsteps.

After the last two daughters were born, the family moved to a larger home at 1711 Avondale Street. That little neighborhood was part of a tract of land once owned by the founding family of Mount Moriah. The Perry’s backyard was adjacent to Section 57 on the southern border of the cemetery.

In the early 1930s the Perrys moved a few blocks down 65th Street to 6534 Glenmore Avenue in Elmwood Park. The girls probably played at Connell Park around the corner. (It was named after George C. Connell, one of the founders of Mount Moriah.) 

Jim married Helen Marie Coughlin on January 27, 1934. Their first home was a rental at 6532 Glenmore, next door to his parents. That meant Helen had help from her in-laws after she gave birth in 1935 to their first daughter, also named Helen. 

Meanwhile, Wally married in 1938 and that couple welcomed a baby girl the following year. Not to be outdone, Jim and Helen had another girl, Barbara, in 1940.

On that year’s census Jim’s job was driving a truck for a lumber company. Wally’s job was the same. On October 16 of that year Jim and Wally both registered for the draft. By that time James had taken a new job at Philadelphia Piers Inc., shown here. Wally had done the same. They were working at Pier 98 which today sits vacant, just a short distance north of the Walt Whitman Bridge where Oregon Avenue ends.

 It was more than three years later, on Valentine’s Day of 1944, that Jim put on Uncle Sam’s uniform. At this point the similarities between the brothers stopped since Wally wasn’t in the service. (He did, however, take after his father by eventually having five daughters.)

Jim met up with Company A, 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division in late August, after they had liberated Paris. The 28th Division moved east and engaged in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest from September 19 – December 16. The heaviest fighting was just east of the Belgian–German border. It was the longest battle on German ground during World War II but history says it accomplished very little.

This is a photo from November 2, three days before Private Perry lost his life in that action on November 5. It was just two weeks before his 34th birthday and less than nine months after his induction.

After his family received the news, a memorial service was held on December 18, 1944 in St James Kingsessing Church near their home. As with all other military members who were killed in enemy action during the war, Jim was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

His remains were returned home in 1947. The funeral was December 13, with military rites provided by the William P. Roche Post No 21, American Legion. Both of his parents would eventually join him there, the same plot that included his other brother who died in infancy.