Early Life
Born Elli Present, she was raised Jewish, and married Don Perkins, who was brought up with a Christian background. Elli had met Don shortly after taking a Scientology course. Before coming to Buffalo, Perkins had lived in Rochester, where she attended the Rochester Institute of Technology. Elli Perkins crafted handmade glass art, and traveled to an annual Renaissance fair in upstate New York to sell her wares. She had been a member of the Sterling Renaissance Festival for twenty-three years, and had helped to run the Niagara Craft Association. She had been unsuccessful selling paintings, and was inspired to start glass painting by a friend. When her friend left town, the market was left open for Elli to set up shop and begin selling her painted glass works.
In 1979, both Don and Elli Perkins reached the Scientology state of "Clear", after taking Scientology courses and receiving "Auditing" processes. The Perkins family then moved to California and lived there during the 1980s, where Elli worked at the Celebrity Centre. In the late 1980s, the family moved back to Buffalo. Elli and Don had a daughter, and a son named Jeremy, who lived at home and worked for Don's contracting company. In addition to contracting work, Don Perkins is a cabinetmaker and carpenter.
Read more about this topic: Death Of Elli Perkins
Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)