DATE: Wednesday, July 2, 1997               TAG: 9707020474

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   42 lines

RUDOLPH L. PERRY

The Rev. Rudolph Lester Perry, the son of Charlie and the late Marie Ross Perry, departed this life after an extended illness Sunday, June 29, 1997, at Maryview Medical Center, Portsmouth.

He was born and reared in Norfolk and was a product of the Roman Catholic School System. Rudolph was converted to the Baptist faith in the early 1950s by the late Rev. Dr. Harvey N. Johnson Sr., Ebenezer Baptist Church, Portsmouth. He was licensed by the Centennial Baptist Church, Portsmouth, under the late Rev. Dr. H.G. Hairston.

As pastor of Antioch Baptist Church of Newport News from 1978-84, he had many accomplishments. He and his congregation stepped out on faith with only $40,000 to build a new edifice. The actual cost of the new edifice was $130,000, and the appraisal of the new structure was $298,000. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the Union Christian Bible Institute, Goldsboro, N.C., for mastery in building onto Gale Street Baptist Church of Edenton, N.C., in 1986, where he remained until 1988, after which he furthered his pastorate at Tabernacle Baptist Church, Newport News.

At the time of his demise, he was an associate pastor at Mount Carmel Baptist Church, Norfolk, where Bishop C. Vernie Russell Jr., D.D., is pastor.

He leaves to cherish his memory his devoted wife, Jeanette C. Perry; daughter and son-in-law, Ideller D. and Preston L. Perry of Virginia Beach; father, Charlie Perry Sr.; siblings, Joyce Ann Rollins and Charlie Perry Jr., all of Norfolk; three grandsons, Michael L. Jr., Jamel S. and Larry Donnell Smith; and a granddaughter, Janae M. Smith, all of Virginia Beach; great-granddaughter, Miesha S. Smith of Portsmouth; father-in-law, Theophilus F. Jordan of Portsmouth; brother-in-law, Lynwood Crowell of Suffolk; two sisters-in-law, Dorothy M. Crowell of Portsmouth and Claudette C. Davis of Houston; and a host of aunts, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

A funeral will be conducted at noon Thursday in Mount Carmel Baptist Church by Bishop C. Vernie Russell Jr. The family will receive friends from 6 to 7 p.m. today in Fisher Funeral Home. Burial will be in Greenlawn Memorial Gardens, Chesapeake. ILLUSTRATION: Photo KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY

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