Obituary – Audrey Bernadine Freeberg Perry
Audrey Bernadine Freeberg Perry, age 91, formerly of Newville, PA, died May 16, 2025 at her residence at Artis West Shore Senior Living in Lemoyne, PA. She was born April 28, 1934 in Renovo, PA to the late Susan O. (Yale) and Charles A. Freeberg, Sr. She was the youngest of six children and their only daughter. She grew up in Renovo before graduating from Renovo High School, Clinton County, in the class of 1952 where she also lettered in the sport of basketball.
She went on to Williamsport (PA) Hospital School of Nursing to become a Registered Nurse, graduating in 1956. Soon after, she married her high school sweetheart, John E. “Gene” Perry and supported his long and varied career, while alternating nursing work with raising their six children. Packing and unpacking belongings became second nature during their early years of marriage as her husband’s career-related relocations took them to numerous small towns and villages in central Pennsylvania from Pleasant Gap, Reedsville, Honey Creek and Linden Hall. In 1969 the family relocated to Bel Air, Maryland. Four years later, they came back to Pennsylvania to the small town of Fairfield. In 1975 the family moved to Newville where she and her husband finally settled in when they “bought the farm”, Whistlewind Farm, in the foothills of the North Mountain outside of Newville, that is. There they lived the farm life happily for 45 years until advancing age and declining health prompted their move to Cumberland Crossings in Carlisle, and subsequently to her most recent residence in Lemoyne.
Living on the farm, she was no stranger to hard work. This proved critical to the success of the family’s restoration and operation of their 200+year old stone farmhouse. She managed the record keeping for the farm in addition to balancing the family checkbook and budget. She helped plant, pick and preserve garden vegetables and orchard fruits, using them to keep the family well-fed. She helped tend to the needs of the horses, cattle and sheep and helped split and stack endless cords of firewood used to heat the house and workshop. In the early years, she was among those loading and unloading the bales of hay and straw raised on the homestead.
During her nursing career, Audrey demonstrated a deep compassion and caring heart for the elderly in her work at Michael Manor Nursing Home in Gettysburg, PA, Forest Park Nursing Home in Carlisle, PA, and at Green Ridge Village Nursing Home in Newville, PA. Her nursing skills and caring heart were useful tools when she cared for her mother, who lived on the farm with the family during her final years. Because of her experience caring for senior citizens, she was selected to serve on the Cumberland County Senior Housing Commission for a term and played a role in the eventual decisions of the Commission to build senior housing complexes in Carlisle and Newville. Her nurturing nature and nursing skills were further employed in caring for her husband Gene, her brother Donald, her children, and other family members needing care over the years. In addition, there was a parade of livestock and family pets that benefitted from her kind-hearted care. Her eldest daughter, Barbara, later chose to follow in her nursing footsteps and became a Registered Nurse, too.
Audrey was the quiet strength behind every family activity, from registering children for school; shopping for food, clothing, and shoes; doing household chores, and the other myriad activities involved in raising a brood of children. She supported their interests ranging from school and scouting activities, sleepovers, family picnics, birthday, swimming, bowling and skating parties, road trip vacations, majorette, cheerleading practices, raising sheep, caring for and riding horses, 4-H sewing and sheep club meetings and so many more.
Audrey’s hobbies included gardening, reading, sewing, camping, ice skating on the farm pond and collecting Hall China teapots, of which she amassed hundreds during her lifetime. On hot summer days she loved sitting on her porch swing and catching up with her family and friends, both near and far. Like her mother, she was a great baker and was famous for her chocolate chip cookies and apple pies.
In all things, Audrey’s strength of character in times of adversity, her can-do attitude and her caring nature were evident. This was especially true as her eyesight faded due to macular degeneration which led to blindness. The Library for the Blind’s digital books became an island of respite for a time. But then dementia set in. So many of her leisure and pleasure activities became more and more inaccessible, and yet she patiently persevered. She gracefully accepted the help that became more and more necessary over time. Until the end, she was still mobile, and with the help of her rollator, could walk the legs off of her family, friends and caregivers.
She is survived by her loving husband of 68 years, Gene; and is lovingly remembered by her surviving children, Barbara Lander Johnson (Dan) of Ketchikan, AK, Cynthia K. Perry (PJ Ventura) of Berwyn Heights, MD, Patricia E. Gilmore (Dan) of Clarksville, TN, David N. Perry of Harrisburg, PA and Carol A. Kelkis (Mike) of York, PA; and her grandchildren and great grandchildren Jeffery Lander, Jason Gilmore (Christina), Benjamin Kelkis, Madison Kelkis, Allison Lander, Christopher Lander, and Kai Gilmore. She is also survived by her sister-in-law Sharon Perry Ford and many nieces and nephews in the Freeberg, Perry and Ford families. In death, she is reunited with her son, John D. Perry, and her five brothers, Charles A. Freeberg, Jr, and Grover, Paul, Robert and Donald Freeberg. The family is very appreciative of the dedicated staff of Heartland Hospice of Carlisle for over 1000 days of support to Audrey and her family.
Friends will be received at 10 a.m. Friday, May 23 in the narthex of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on Marsh Drive in Carlisle, PA. A Mass of Christian burial will follow at 11 a.m. in the church. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation in her memory to St. Patrick’s Catholic Church or Heartland Hospice. www.EwingBrothers.com.
