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Marion R. Perry was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on July 11, 1892. He received an A.B. from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) in 1912. During World War I, he was one of four Negroes to graduate in the 17th Provisional Training Battalion as a Second Lieutenant. During his two years in the Army, he was promoted to First Lieutenant.

After the war, Perry worked for the Mosaic Templars of America, a fraternal insurance company, for ten years, during part of which he obtained an LL.B. from the law school of the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1924. He also attended classes at Columbia University School of Law for three months. He was admitted to the Arkansas bar on February 16, 1925.

Perry was identified as an attorney in the Little Rock (Pulaski County) City Directories from 1926 until 1931, where he engaged in a business law practice. During this period, he represented the Mosaic Templars in some of its business matters, as well as representing Liberty Finance Corp. (Helena), Century Life Insurance Co. (Hot Springs) and Guaranty Security & Investment Co., all Black-owned businesses. Perry also owned a half-interest in the family undertaking business and was president of Olympic Life Insurance Co., both located in Pine Bluff.

In 1927 Perry married Mae Walker, the adopted grand-daughter of Madame C.J. Walker, who had made a fortune in the cosmetics industry. They had one daughter, A’Lelia Mae Perry. When his mother-in-law died, Perry moved with his wife to Indianapolis, Indiana, to work with the Madame C.J. Walker Co. He returned to Pine Bluff in 1936, where he resumed his work in the law and the undertaking and insurance businesses. Perry died in 1983, at the age of 91.

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