Anita LeRosen Perini

Anita LeRosen Perini, 79, passed away on September 2, 2026, in Carlsbad, New Mexico, as a good and faithful servant of the Lord. She was born June 19, 1947, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Dr. Arthur LeDoux LeRosen and Jo Margret Rose. She was a devoted wife, mother, Nana, sister, relative, friend, teacher, and a source of love and encouragement to so many throughout her life.

As a child, Anita loved playing with the neighborhood kids and spending time with her siblings. She spoke fondly of Saturday nights spent with her grandparents and summers in Louisiana with her older sister, Coleta. She loved babysitting and caring for her younger siblings, Chuck and Susie. Anita was exceptionally bright and an outstanding student. In the summer of 1961, before beginning her 10th-grade year, Anita and a small group of students answered President John F. Kennedy’s physical fitness challenge by walking from Mid High School to Whites City and back—a grueling 46-mile round trip in the New Mexico summer heat. Anita was the only girl to complete the entire walk. As the students made their way home, their journey became the talk of Carlsbad, with the local radio station covering their final miles and residents driving behind them to show their support. It is a testament to Anita’s spirit and tenacity.

It was at Carlsbad High School, when Anita was 15, that she met David Perini, the love of her life. She graduated from Carlsbad High School with honors in 1965 and attended the University of Colorado, where David played football for the Buffaloes. On August 20, 1966, after their first year of college, David and Anita were married in Carlsbad. They would share 59 years of marriage.

After they married, Anita worked full time and became a mother in 1968. Following David’s graduation from the University of Colorado in 1969, they briefly lived in Lubbock, Texas, before returning in the summer of 1970 to their hometown of Carlsbad. Over the next 56 years, Anita would call Carlsbad home for 44 of them.

Later in life, Anita earned her bachelor’s degree in education and became an elementary school teacher. Teaching came naturally to her. Throughout her life she tutored and helped countless people, with particular gifts in math, science, literature, and writing. She was intelligent and curious, but equally important, she was patient and generous with what she knew.

The happiest days of Anita’s life were those spent with her family. She treasured her children’s and grandchildren’s baby years, school activities, birthdays, family meals, holidays which she always made extraordinary, days boating on the Pecos River, her sons’ baseball, basketball, and football games, her daughter’s horseback-riding and tap dancing, family vacations, and hosting family in her home. She didn’t simply attend her children’s and grandchildren’s lives—she threw herself wholeheartedly into them. She led Boy Scout and Blue Bird troops, attended all her boys’ athletic games, volunteered for every school event, and was always ready to support whatever her children and grandchildren loved.

Anita was also wonderfully creative and artistic. A self-taught and talented seamstress, she made beautiful dresses and imaginative Halloween costumes for her children, often turning an idea into something magical with her own hands. She especially loved the holidays and filled them with creativity, making special decorations, stockings, and traditions for her children and later, grandchildren that became treasured family memories. Whether she was sewing, decorating, cooking an amazing family meal, or creating something simply to delight someone she loved, Anita had a gift for making ordinary moments and the people she loved feel special.

That creativity was matched by an extraordinary generosity of spirit. Anita was supportive, empathetic, thoughtful, and kind. She listened, encouraged, helped, and gave freely of herself. She always put others first. Her family always knew how deeply they were loved. Her joy in her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren was immeasurable, and being their Mom and Nana was the role she treasured most.

Anita was preceded in death by her beloved husband, David. She is survived by her adoring family: sons John David and wife Jeana; Michael and wife Mckenzie; daughter Cindy Perini and husband Johnny Hinojos; and the grandchildren she so loved, Michelle Charee Garza and husband Francisco, Brandon David Perini, Mark Michael Perini and wife Callie, Lucy Gray Perini, Desmond Pietro Perini, and Vicki LeRosen Perini. She is also survived by her great-grandchildren, Celine Marie Garza, John Diego Garza, and Josephine Garza; sisters Coleta Weatherbee and Susie Dodrill; brother Chuck Harper; sister-in-law Gayla Perini DeLay and husband Bob; and the many nieces and nephews she cherished. She also leaves behind extended family and lifelong friends whom she dearly loved.

Visitation will be held from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM and a rosary from 6:30 PM to 7:00 PM on September 10, 2026, at Denton-Wood Funeral Home. Mass of Christian Burial is scheduled for 10:30am on September 11, 2026, at St. Edward Catholic Church, with Fr. Pasala Hruday Kumar officiating. Interment will follow at Carlsbad Cemetery in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Denton-Wood Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Following the burial, a reception will be held at the Stevens. Those unable to attend the burial are still warmly invited to join the family for the reception.

Pallbearers include Brandon Perini, Mark Perini, Francisco Garza, Chuck Harper, Neil Weathersbee, Cory Young, Kevin DeLay, and Kelly Neel. Honorary pallbearers include Johnny Hinojos, Desmond Pietro Perini, John Diego Garza, Richard Young, Bob DeLay, John Perrin, George Frederick, and Mike Veilleux.

Anita believed in helping others and supporting the organizations that made her beloved Carlsbad a better place. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in her memory be made to the Assistance League of Carlsbad, P.O. Box 465, Carlsbad, NM 88221.

Anita leaves behind a lifetime of things she created, lessons she taught, traditions she began, people she helped, and a family that knew the gift of being deeply loved by her.

“She is like a Star in my Heart”