Faith Hill Called Her Father, Ted Perry, 'Smart' In Spite of His Illiteracy
Faith Hill never hid the fact that she was adopted, raised by two loving parents, Edna Perry, who [...]
Faith Hill never hid the fact that she was adopted, raised by two loving parents, Edna Perry, who died in 2016, and Ted Perry, who passed away last week. Hill and her family lived in rural Star, Mississippi, where Hill revealed her father quit school in fourth grade to help his family earn money, and never learned to read.
"He is smart," Hill told Good Housekeeping. "He's done really well. But there's a whole other world out there in reading. I didn't understand how important it was until I became an adult and realized how much he missed out on."
It was because of Ted that Hill launched the Faith Hill Family Literacy Project. Although Hill has stated she is grateful for the love her family instilled in her, and the solid Christian background they provided her, she still struggled with not knowing her biological parents.
"I was adopted into this incredible home, a loving, positive environment, yet I had this yearning, this kind of darkness that was also inside me," Hill acknowledged.
The singer ultimately met her birth mother, and said it gave her the closure she needed.
"I'd never seen anyone that looked anything like me," Hill stated. "It was the awe of seeing someone you came from. It fills something."
Ted was clearly loved by not only Hill but her family as well. Her husband, Tim McGraw, mourned his loss on social media.
"G Pa, Faith's father passed away last week at 88 yrs old," McGraw wrote in a video, showing pictures of Ted, while the Judds' "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Ol' Days)" played in the background. "He was the sweetest, kindest most gentle man I've ever known......."
"No man in my life has ever made such an impact on me as to how to be a human, a father and a friend," McGraw, 51, continued. "I'll never, in 10 lifetimes, be able to live up to his example, but man, he has set a mark that all of us should strive for. His legacy will live on through the 3 beautiful souls he raised, Faith and her brothers, Steve and Wesley... I'm sure a day will not pass for the rest of my life, that he will not show up in my thoughts. We all love you G Pa."
Photo Credit: Getty images/Matt Winkelmeyer