Glendale lost one its jewels this week with the death of Ellen Perry.
Perry cared about Glendale so much that she learned its history and wrote and talked about it whenever she had the chance — with a passion.
Those chances came as a columnist for this paper and as the definitive source for its reporters when tackling stories that needed historical context.
Even when you thought you had the history of a local landmark pinned down, Perry was there with her well-known feistiness and straight-talk to give you the inside story, the phone number for a great person to talk to or just general direction on writing about Glendale's history.
Perry's legacy will not soon be forgotten. That legacy continues on in her columns, which still exist in the back issues of this paper, in the Glendale Old Timers annual picnic — which she helped organize — and in a reverence for this city's history that lives on.
It still exists because people like Perry have devoted much of their lives to it. And even in her later years, when her health and her eyesight failed her, her vast knowledge of Glendale's 100 years remained bright.
It was only last February when Perry, though ailing, went on the record with the Glendale News-Press about the history of rail transit in the city, remembering that "old car barn," where "the red cars would go in for the night. We'd ride it to Los Angeles and at the end of the line the motorman would let us to turn the seats around," she said.
Or, then there was the history of commerce: "At one time, Sears was the biggest store in town," she recalled to the News-Press.
Before that it was loads of historic landmarks that she kept in the public eye, from city pioneer Leslie C. Brand's historic house to the Les Mesnager Barn in Deukmejian Wilderness Park.
It was almost like yesterday for Perry, who at 73 died much too young.
We thank her for helping us remember yesterday — and treasure it.
