Obituary of Helen Hornstein Perlmutt

Helen Perlmutt, a retired public school teacher who charmed everyone with her effervescent smile and a humidified Georgia-honed Geechee accent and for 66 years was a devout Chapel Hillian and Tar Heel fan, died early December 30, 2019. She was 93.

Helen died after a short illness as gracefully as she lived her life, spending her last days swapping stories with a procession of family members who she loved unconditionally -- and they her.

Near the end, she declared: “Well, it’s been fun.”

She was born Helen Doris Hornstein on May 28, 1926 in Savannah, Ga., to Morris Hornstein and Yetta Kaplan Hornstein. She grew up on East Gaston Street with her two younger brothers, Bobby and Julius “Boo,” and their grandfather, Moses “Papa” Kaplan, a mohel trained to perform the Jewish rite of circumcision. He was also a Kosher butcher.

In that household she learned kindness and decency. Helen, nicknamed Chessie (after the railroad) or Bumble, never knew what stranger her grandfather would bring home for a meal. On game day, her father loaded up his car with neighborhood children and would take them to a baseball game. At a time when mixing races was dangerous in the South, Theron Spencer virtually became a member of the family and helped shape Helen’s perspective. Her parents gave him a job at the family market they ran and her grandfather paid his college tuition. Theron became assistant principal at Savannah High School, Helen’s alma mater, and considered Helen, Bobby and Boo his siblings.

They were all story-tellers. Brothers Bobby and Boo were masterful spinners, but their big sister was no slouch. Particularly in her last years, she’d often hold court in the bright family room of the Chapel Hill home she and husband Joe built in 1956. 

When friends or neighbors came to visit, storytime commenced, her tales embroidered and detailed: About growing up in Savannah where during World War II she worked as a phone operator and stood guard with her mother on the coast looking out for enemy planes and ships. About the accomplishments and travels of her five grandchildren and always about the latest Tar Heel win. 

Shortly after graduating from the University of Georgia with a sociology degree, Helen was at a  shrimp-and-beer party at Fort Screven on Tybee Island. There she met Savannahian Joseph Perlmutt, recently returned from the war where he skippered a Navy crash boat in the South Pacific for three years. 

They married in 1948, and soon were off to Princeton University in New Jersey, where Joe had started a PhD program in biology. A year later, son Louis was born. After Joe graduated, the young family moved first to  the University of Oklahoma, where Joe was an assistant professor, and a year later returned east when Joe took a position at the University of Pennsylvania medical school. 

In 1953, with Helen pregnant with their second child, the medical school at UNC Chapel Hill was expanding from two to four years, and the Perlmutts joined a wave of young doctors and scientists and their families moving to Chapel Hill.

Soon son David was born and five years later a third son, Martin.

Along the way, Helen was blazing her own path. She quietly but firmly advocated for equality: equal rights, equal access to quality healthcare and equal educational opportunities. In 1955, two years after moving to Chapel Hill, she helped start the Chapel Hill Cooperative Preschool with legendary civil rights activist Rev. Charlie Jones (who Helen held in high esteem), Ruth Manire and others.

Housed in the basement of the Community Church on Purefoy Road, where Jones was the founding minister, it was the first integrated preschool in the South.

Helen taught at the school for more than a dozen years, and years later was clearly proud she had a part in its founding. The school still operates. At 45, Helen finished a Master’s degree in education at UNC, worked briefly at the then-fledgling Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and for 14 years was a kindergarten teacher at Estes Hills Elementary School in Chapel Hill.

Years after retiring in 1986, it wasn’t uncommon for her to walk into a restaurant or event and get hugs from former students or their parents.

The affection for Helen was multi-generational. Longtime neighbor and friend Vici Cook always took Helen a fresh calendar before the new year to put on her refrigerator. Shortly before Christmas, she realized she hadn’t delivered the 2020 calendar. Two of Cook’s grandsons, now in their 20s, excitedly offered to make the delivery, “They both said, ‘we hadn’t seen her in a while and we’d like to see her,’” Cook said. “Helen really touched so many different kinds of lives.”

She found goodness in most everybody and joy in most everything. A good day was a BLT from Merritt’s Grill and a Tar Heel game that night. A fabulous day was sitting around the dinner table swapping stories with any or all of her grandchildren and other family members, who filled her with pride.

Each year, she looked forward to the fireworks show by close neighbors and friends Bob and Laura Moore on July 4 and New Year’s Eve. Helen was always a guest of honor. She enjoyed Bob’s fireworks, but enjoyed them more if the cops arrived to shut it down.

She was disappointed when Bob cancelled the July 4 celebration last summer after police called and advised him to get out of pyrotechnics. After Helen died on the eve of New Year’s Eve, Bob decided to defy authority and emailed the neighborhood that he planned to launch three rounds in honor of Helen.

At the appointed time, neighbors watched from their yards or windows. After each burst, they cheered and shouted:

“To Helen!” “To Helen!” “To Helen!”

The family wishes to thank Helen’s neighbors and friends for looking out for her, visiting and finding delight in her stories. A grateful thanks goes also to Dr. Rom Colindres, Helen’s longtime physician and friend (she taught his two sons too) who took impeccable care of her to the end, and to the team of doctors and nurses in UNC Hospital’s Medical Intensive Care Unit and the MPCU step-down unit. They do amazing work.

Helen was predeceased by son Louis, a radiologist who died in 2001, and husband Joe, a  physiologist who died in 2009. 

She is survived by two sons, David Perlmutt (partner Katy Hill) of Charlotte and Martin Perlmutt of Durham; daughter-in-law Susan Seehusen of Chapel Hill; five grandchildren: Bent-Jorgen “B.J.” Perlmutt (fiancee Sarah Canner) of Brooklyn, N.Y., Lars Perlmutt of Chapel Hill, Olivia Perlmutt of New York City, Max Perlmutt (wife Erin) of Chapel Hill and Ainslie Perlmutt (partner Austin Whitehead) of Salt Lake City, Utah; and two great-grandchildren, Zofia Perlmutt of Brooklyn, and Sasha Perlmutt of Chapel Hill.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to the Louis M. Perlmutt M.D. Scholarship, The Medical Foundation of North Carolina, P.O. Box 309, Chapel Hill, N.C., 27514-0309, or to a charity of your choice in Helen’s honor. 

A celebration of Helen’s remarkable life will be held Saturday, Feb. 1, at 5 p.m. at the N.C. Botanical Garden, 100 Old Mason Farm Road in Chapel Hill. 

The Perlmutt family is under the care of Walker's Funeral Home of Chapel Hill.