Eleanor Florence (Perley) Metcalf

Eleanor Florence (Perley) Metcalf passed away on January 12, 2024.  She was born on April 10, 1923, grew up in Georgetown, Mass., and was a resident of Watertown for 81 years.  She was the daughter of Henry Chaplin Perley and Florence (Batchelder) Perley.  She married Robert F. Metcalf, Jr., also from Georgetown, in October 1941 while he was on active duty at Watertown Arsenal.  He passed away in 2006. 

She was deeply involved in community service.  For many years in the First Baptist Church of Watertown and later in the First Baptist Church of Arlington she served as a deacon, choir member, Sunday school teacher, and leader of women’s groups.  She served for 25 years as a director of the Watertown Visiting Nurse Association and its successor, the Belmont-Watertown Community Health Association, including three years as president.  In the 1950s she began to serve regularly as an election volunteer, counting votes in the evening after the polls closed.  In later years she worked the full day on Election Day and eventually became Precinct Warden.

She became involved in the programs of Charlesgate Manor Convalescent Home in the late 1970s, when her mother was a patient there.  She and her husband continued as volunteers at Charlesgate through the 1980s and 1990s.  They were honored for public service by Attorney General Scott Harshbarger in 1994, by the Watertown Rotary Club in 2000, and by Gov. Jane Swift in 2001, on the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary.

She was predeceased by her brother Henry B. Perley and his wife Barbara of Boxford, Mass.; her brother Albert Perley of Georgetown, Mass.; and her grandson LTJG David R. Metcalf, U.S. Navy.  She is survived by her sister-in-law Jean Perley of Georgetown; her sons and daughters-in-law Samuel and his wife Alexandrina of Bad Homburg, Germany, James and his wife Jill of Wayland, Mass., and Thomas and his wife Lagenia of Marietta, Ga.; three grandchildren; two nieces; two nephews; and six great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be held on Wednesday Jan.17 at MacDonald Rockwell & MacDonald Funeral Home, 270 Main Street, Watertown, from 4-7 PM. Funeral Service will be held at the First Baptist Church of Arlington, 819 Mass. Ave, Arlington on Thursday Jan. 18 at 10:30 AM. Private interment will take place at Harmony Cemetery, Georgetown.

In lieu of flowers, donations in the name of Eleanor may be made to the First Baptist Church of Arlington, 819 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA 02476 or to Perkins School for the Blind 175 North Beacon St. Watertown MA 02472 or at www.perkins.org

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