Ruth Ann Buzzi

The Celebration of Life Service will be live streamed on the Lacy Funeral Home Facebook Page with a Youtube link and also on Youtube Cowboy Church of Erath County.
Ruth Ann Buzzi Perkins, 88, passed away on May 1, 2025, in Erath County. A celebration of life will be held at 2 pm May 17, 2025, at the Cowboy Church of Erath County with Rev. Werth Mayes officiating with arrangements by Lacy Funeral Home.
Ruth was born in Providence, Rhode Island on July 24, 1936, to Angelo and Rena Pauline (Macchi) Buzzi. She attended Stonington High School, where she was Head Cheerleader, and at just the age of 17, she enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts in California, from which she graduated with honors in June 1957. She married Kent Perkins on December 10, 1978, in Las Vegas, Nevada and they were still married when left this earth 46 years later. Ruth was raised in the Baptist Church in Stonington, Connecticut and she and Kent attended White's Chapel Methodist Church in Southlake, Texas with Kent's parents, Dee and Elaine Perkins of Southlake, Texas.
Ruth was an American actress and comedian. She appeared on stage, on screen in films, and on television. She won a Golden Globe Award and received five Emmy nominations, was inducted into the Television and Radio Hall of Fame at the Paley Museum in Hollywood in 2001, inducted into the Rhode Island Hall of Fame, and was honored with her own episode of "This is your Life" with Ralph Edwards. She appeared eight times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and performed as a guest star in more than a dozen TV Specials with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tony Orlando, Donnie and Marie Osmond, Cher, Anne Murray, and Bob Hope to name a few. Ruth was a charter member of the Pasadena Playhouse Alumni Association and was the first honoree to receive the Achievement Award. She did countless voices for animated features and cartoons in movies such as The Aristocats and Scooby Doo. She was the voice of many popular cartoon series including The Jetsons, Berenstain Bears, Smurfs, and was known as Granny Goodwitch with Sugar Bear in commercials.
She supported numerous children's charities, including Make-a-Wish, the Foster's Home for Children in Stephenville, the Special Olympics, Dallas Museum of Biblical Art, The Thalian Society (founded by Debbie Reynolds and Ruta Lee), St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Big Brothers - Big Sisters of America, the Cross-Timbers Regional office of Court-Appointed Special Advocates for children ("CASA") and helped Erath County's less fortunate individuals through the couple's own charitable foundation, Sunset Charities. A lifelong rescuer of stray and abandoned cats and dogs, she was active in the fundraising efforts of Actors and Others for Animals, the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch in Medina, Texas, and the Erath County Humane Society Animal Shelter.
Ruth lived with her husband Kent Perkins on a 623-acre cattle and horse ranch near Stephenville, Texas.
She loved oil painting, but never sold them commercially, choosing instead to donate original works and signed, numbered prints charities. Ruth loved sewing, movies, ATV rides on the ranch, cooking Italian food and socializing with friends. Ruth loved her four cats, her dog Cora Belle and her horses. Ruth did not share enthusiasm for her husband's passion for cars; she preferred driving her ½ ton pickup truck.
Survivors include her husband, Commissioner Kent Perkins (Appointed to the Texas Arts Commission); Ruth's brother, Edward Buzzi of Connecticut; her Nieces, Suzanne Buzzi of Stonington, Connecticut and Cheryl Buzzi Stakley of Detroit, Michigan; her Sister-in-law Sally Buzzi of Pawcatuck, Connecticut; her great niece, Madison Stakley of Sacramento, California; her parents-in-law Dee and Elaine Perkins (100 and 99 years of age, the former WW2 Veteran), who reside in Southlake, Texas; and her god-daughters Mary Langston and Myah Marie Langston of Southern California.
She died of Alzheimer's Disease; if you wish, Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer's Association https://donorservices.alz.org/page/FUNLBUGRHVW?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_campaign=giving_dm_bing_alz_select&msclkid=b532e99d08021fda32d48189e2cc1bcf
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