Excerpt from Daily News Obituary, June 24, 2005

When Perri Mercer sang God Bless America, it sent shivers up the spines of her listeners.

It was her signature song. Her big, five-octave operatic voice could make every note ring with the same power the legendary Kath Smith brought to the song. In fact, Mercer was known as Philadelphia’s Kate Smith.

Mercer, called the “Songstress of Many Voices,” and “The Little Girl with the Big Voice” was a local star with her own radio show in the 1950s on WCAM.

She was also well known as a performer in clubs from Philadelphia to Florida, and put in more than 35,000 volunteer hours performing in USO shows for over 60 years.

“She had the kind of voice that transcended your ears and touched a very special place in your brain and maybe your soul,” her daughter Melodee Mercer said.

Only 5-foot 2-inches, Mercer could croon something like the sultry, “A Good Man is Hard to find,” then switch to the high notes of “Madame Butterfly.”

At the end of her life, with her health failing, she still lived every moment to the fullest. She danced in her wheelchair at the Andre Reui concert in Bethlehem, and even managed the Mummer’s strut in her wheelchair on News Year’s Eve. She cooked for 80 people at her 80th birthday party and then sang for them

“As one of my friends said, ‘She was the least disabled person I know,’” her daughter said.

… At her funeral, mourners listened to her recording of God Bless America and gave her a standing ovation as pall bearers carried her casket out of the funeral home.

The ovation, which lasted till well after the casket left the room, was a dedication not only to her singing, but to a life well lived -- a fitting send off to a performer, who was always smiling and always trying to make life better for others.