Franklin County Commonwealth’s Attorney A.J. Dudley echoed Boitnott’s impressions of Perdue’s approach to the parties that came before him.
“One of [his] most consistent qualities was his ability to make each person in the courtroom feel at ease, and that their views would be heard,” Dudley said. “Our area has lost a ‘gentleman lawyer,’ in the truest sense of the phrase.”
When Perdue was up for his judgeship in 2015, local attorney David Furrow was also being considered for the coveted position, but Furrow said they took that factor in stride and even rode together to their judicial interviews.
“There was no acrimony,” Furrow said Sunday, and he recalled overhearing Perdue’s answers during his evaluation: “I remember what he said. That he liked practicing in a small town. He could walk to work. He liked to listen, and he thought he’d make a good judge. And he did.”
“He was a humble and kind man with a heart of gold,” circuit court clerk Teresa Brown said. “He loved the people of Franklin County and he was proud to be from here.”
The son of a lawyer himself, Perdue helped perpetuate that tradition further still: His son, Holland Perdue, is a Rocky Mount attorney and his daughter, Delaney Perdue, is now in her third year of law school in Richmond.