Our talented and loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend Perley Louise Harrington Pry Crosier was reunited with her best friend, her husband Bob, on September 30, 2020. She lived 96 years.
She was born at home to George and Lena Harrington on August 23, 1924 in Carthage, Illinois. She was the eighth of nine children and was the last survivor of that generation. Perley met Bob, a Gonzaga student, while in church. On October 22 Robert and Perley were wed. Together they raised three children (Mike and Jon Crosier and Jennie Sprouse) and enjoyed them along with their grandchildren (Jona Titus, Ember Christensen, Jonathan and Joshua Crosier, Nicholas and Daniel Sprouse) and great-grandchildren (Nathan, Anne, and Seth Christiansen and Anastasia and J. Alex Crosier). As a stay at home mom, her family was everything to her. She lived the value of family first and said it many times.
Perley was an artist. She loved painting, crocheting, embroidery and gardening. Most of the art in her home were pictures she had created. She also created a picture of a pastor, head in his hands which hung on the podium at the First Baptist Church in Prosser for many years. She also donated a beautiful mosaic of Mary, Joseph and Jesus for the church. It looked like it was made from beautiful crushed tile but it was from egg shells. She was the state leader of the American Baptist Women Society and would travel visiting churches and sharing ideas of how to increase outreach to those in need of lifting up.
She worked at LaHatt’s Jewelry store in Prosser during the 1970s, spending most of her earnings on the sparkly things that caught her eye.
She loved music and especially loved to sing and dance. She and her husband square danced and she sang in the church choir and in a barbershop quartet. She also played the guitar. You could tell when she was happy because you would catch her singing or tap dancing in the kitchen. She had a beautiful smile that made her eyes sparkle and a magical laugh.
Her face would light up when a baby would come into the room. Watching her carefully reach out to them and speak with them, you knew she was absolutely thrilled to be in the presence of this precious little soul. She saw babies, birds, cats, horses, dogs and other animals through the eyes of awe and adoration. She had four bird feeders and would watch them from her kitchen window, book in hand to identify each one. She ran Purrley’s Cat House, a no-kill, no sell cat shelter. She did not let anyone count them but there were at least nine and she always had one in her lap.
She enjoyed bowling at Valley Lanes in Sunnyside and won several awards. She thought the world of the people she played with. Bob and Perley loved being a part of the community and funded private loans for business to expand.
In her last years she remembered only the good and saw only the good in people. She remembered no wrongs and no hurts. When I would talk to her about surviving cancer she had no recollection of that either. She didn’t remember losing her son, Michael in 2016 or the babies she had lost long ago. She let me know that she never had an argument with anyone including my father. She loved friends and family so much it brought tears to her eyes and had pictures of them all in her apartment.
She was a good friend, family member, and a resident of the Prosser community for 60 years. We invite you to attend a celebration of Perley’s life on October 24 at 11 am at Prosser Funeral Home,1220 Sheridan Ave., Prosser, WA. To comply with COVID requirements masks and hand sanitizer are required. The service will be in the lawn outside the funeral home, weather permitting or inside if the weather warrants.
Graveside services will be October 25 at 11 am at Pleasant Prairie Cemetery, 9303 E Morgan Road, Spokane, WA