Alice Ivelle Perrone

1922 - 2011

Alice Ivelle Perrone, 88, passed away Monday, March 21, 2011. Memorial service: 11 a.m. Saturday at Ridglea Presbyterian Church, with her niece, the Rev. Dr. Julie Tacker Barrier; her niece's husband, the Rev. Dr. Roger Barrier; and the Rev. Laura Fitzgibbon, associate pastor of Ridglea Presbyterian Church, officiating. Interment: Greenwood Memorial Park. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Greenwood Funeral Home. Memorials: In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to UNT Health Science Center, Healthy Aging Council, for Alzheimer's research. Alice Ivelle was born in Dallas to Dora Goodman Tacker and Ralph Waldo Tacker. She graduated from Adamson High School in 1939, where she held the distinction of being the only woman on the debate team and debate partner of the Honorable James C. "Jim" Wright. Jim, the captain of the team, had insisted that unless his talented friend was permitted to join, he would not be part of the team. After graduation, she began her college education at North Texas Agricultural College, where she studied theater. One of her friends introduced her to a flight instructor, Jack Foote, whose family had an aviation school. She became fast friends with Jack's mother, Jean LaRene, the seventh woman pilot in the United States and one of the Ninety-Nines. While Alice learned to fly solo, she didn't remain so in her personal life, marrying Jack in 1942 and bearing their only child, Donna Jean, on June 1, 1945, while Jack was stationed in India, "flying the Hump." After the war, they moved to Chicago where Jack became a commercial pilot. In 1947, Jack and his co-pilot perished when the engine of their cargo plane malfunctioned. Shortly thereafter, Alice Ivelle and Donna returned to Dallas to be with family. In the fall of 1949, the young widow stopped by Dougherty's Pharmacy, near her home, and met a newly-hired, dashing pharmacist and World War II veteran from Bryan by the name of Paul Perrone. As if by fate, this was the same place where Alice's only brother had met his bride two years previously, when she was working at the soda fountain. Alice Ivelle found a kindred adventurous spirit in Paul: he, the bull-riding glider pilot who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day - she, an aviatrix who fenced, performed on radio and screen-tested in Hollywood. After a whirlwind courtship, the couple married Feb. 14, 1950. Their daughter, Paula Ann, was born in Dallas on June 23, 1951, and by April 1952, the young family had moved from Dallas and opened Perrone & Park Pharmacy (later to become Perrone Pharmacy) on the west side of Fort Worth. The last addition to the family was Leslie Kim, born Nov. 15, 1956. Alice Ivelle returned to college in 1962, this time TCU, as one of the "oldest" students on campus at the ripe age of 40. She loved being back in school, which gave her a fabulous excuse not to cook, quipping famously she did not do so as she "had been frightened by a Tappan at an early age." After graduation, she taught elementary school then returned to TCU to obtain her master's in educational testing, then an emerging field of study. An inveterate traveler, she ventured throughout Europe and the Far East, sometimes taking companions, sometimes chancing her luck, but was never disappointed in what she would experience along the way. She imparted to her children and grandchildren a lifelong love of learning and adventure. "Dallas Alice" will be sorely missed. She was a member of Ridglea Presbyterian Church, Ridglea Country Club and Ridglea Dinner Club. When it was the Perrones' time to host dinner club, they always had it catered, to no one's surprise who knew Alice well. Yet she had other passions. Since she and Paul loved to dance, they belonged to several clubs devoted to that pleasure. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her first husband, Jack Foote; her second husband, Paul M. Perrone; and one daughter, Donna Perrone Haun. Survivors: Brother, Ralph Murle Tacker and his wife, Wanda Tacker; sister-in-law, Mary Restivo Perrone of Bryan; daughter, Paula Perrone Thomasson and her husband, George Carroll Thomasson; daughter, Kim Perrone McLaughlin; grandchildren, Kelly Haun Barkemeyer and her husband, Henry Senac Barkemeyer, Austin Perrone McLaughlin and his wife, Kayla Grabeel McLaughlin, Tyler Scott McLaughlin, Dr. Eliza Thomasson Holland and her husband, Dr. Matthew David Holland, Margaret Thomasson Norris and her husband, Jonathan Jeffery Norris, George Carroll Thomasson III and Ann Lillington Bernhardt Thomasson; and great-grandchildren, Katherine Donna Barkemeyer, Harris Alexander Holland, Lily May Holland and Lucy Bassett Norris.