Kirk Headley Perdue

Kirk Headley-Perdue, a lifelong Tallahassean who spent her career fighting for children and the families who raised them, died August 17, 2026, at her home in Tallahassee, surrounded by family. She was 75. Born in Tallahassee to Julien “Bull” Christian Headley and Louise Kirk Headley Edwards, Kirk earned a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in social work from Tulane University, then a Master of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. Where others might have seen two unrelated careers, she saw one: she developed an approach to therapy that used art as a way for children to say what they could not yet put into words. She put that training to work at a child guidance clinic in Jacksonville, then ran a graphic design studio on Gaines Street in Tallahassee, where she worked on several well-known brands and set type for the Capital Cannon, her brother Chris’s newspaper. She later served as art teacher and child guidance counselor at Holy Comforter Episcopal School. Her advocacy began at home. When her son was born with challenges no one could have prepared her for, she met them head-on — and then set about making sure other parents would not have to face them alone. Kirk lobbied for early intervention services for infants and toddlers and helped get legislation supporting those services enacted in twenty-eight states — work that meant sitting down with legislators, agencies, and families who had every reason to distrust one another and getting them to see past it. She had a gift for spotting a possibility no one else in the room had noticed yet, and the patience to bring people around to it. In Florida she chaired the Interagency Coordinating Council for Infants and Toddlers, a gubernatorial appointment overseeing the state’s early intervention system, and served as Vice Chair of the State Coordinating Council for Early Childhood Services and Prevention, on the Florida Healthy Start State Advisory Council, and on the board of the Family Network on Disabilities. She was Executive Director of Linkages in Tallahassee, where she led workshops for families and professionals, promising each group learning, laughter, possibility, and motivation. Over the years she also served on numerous civic and community boards. She was known above all as a parent advocate. She insisted that parents belonged inside their children’s education rather than outside it, and she pushed back hard on the assumption that a struggling family was an indifferent one. She believed people were generally doing the best they could with what they knew, and that the work was not to blame them but to make sure they knew more. She ran for public office three times — for the Florida House in 2010 and for the Leon County Commission in 2012 and 2016 — never for the office itself, but because a candidacy was one more platform from which to make that argument. Away from that work, Kirk had an extraordinary eye and the resourcefulness to match it. She bought houses no one else wanted and brought them back: a derelict cabin on a Highlands, North Carolina mountainside that she expanded into a light-filled home; an old barracks at St. Teresa that became a beach bungalow; a house on the bluff near Lake Talquin whose walls she took down to open it up. She rescued furniture from yard sales and roadsides and had it recovered in fabric she’d collected for years on closeout runs down back roads across the South. Her last house was a concrete block rectangle with the roof caving in when she found it; she added on and made it a cottage, and she fought to keep the great grandfather oak in the front yard — as she had fought for so many things that could not speak for themselves. She was preceded in death by her parents, Julien “Bull” Christian Headley and Louise Kirk Headley Edwards; her sister, Margaret “Didi” Dalton Headley; her brother, George William Headley; and her brother-in-law, Philip Armand Poole. She is survived by her son, Dalton Headley Perdue (Jennifer); her granddaughter, Madison Sims; her sister, Lillian “Jill” Headley Poole; her brother, Julien “Chris” Christian Headley II (Carol); her stepsister, Hope Edwards; her sister-in-law, Melina Headley; her nieces and nephews, Honey Poole, Julien Headley, Lyn Headley (Adri), Anna Headley (Dan), and Gregory Headley (Hannah); her goddaughter, Clara Dart Beaumont; and a host of great-nieces and great-nephews. The family is deeply grateful to Claudia Reynolds and Eric Maciejewski, whose care and friendship sustained Kirk for many years. Funeral services will be held Sunday, August 30, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, with a reception to follow. Burial will be private at the Headley Family Cemetery in Monticello, Florida. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial donations be made to the Nicholas’ Journey Fund in Ochsner Pediatric Cardiology, which helps families stay close to their children during cardiac care. Gifts may be sent to Ochsner Clinic Foundation, 1514 Jefferson Highway, Suite 1E032, New Orleans, LA 70121 Susie Mozolic of Bevis Funeral Home is assisting the Perdue family with their arrangements. www.bevisfh.com or 850-385-2193

Kirk Headley Perdue

June 10, 1951 - August 17, 2026