Alicia Carolyn "Lish" Berry

Alicia Carolyn Berry was born in Wichita, Kansas, on January 27, 1944. Her proud parents, Bill and Alice Berry, came from two families whose roots go back to the days of early frontiersmen. Her father was born in Colorado and her mother in Nebraska. Alicia, called "Lish" by her family members, was born the third of five children. She had two sisters and two brothers. Their names in the order of their birth are Louise, David, Pamela, and Bill. She was smack dab in the middle and unlike some middle children. Alicia did not feel overlooked. From the youngest to the oldest child in the family there was a span of 21 years. Alicia was very much a central figure. At two years old, her family moved from Wichita to a farm in a rural New Jersey town. Alicia went from kindergarten to fifth grade in a one room schoolhouse. When it was time to go to the next grade she went to what she considered the big school in Denville, NJ. This school went from kindergarten to eighth grade. She went there from the sixth through eighth grades. Her high school, Morris Hills Regional High School, served students from multiple towns. Alicia didn't enter college immediately upon graduation from high school. She took her first real job in the early 1960s at a high rise construction company in New York City. This was the same company that built the Pan Am Building and the Sears Tower. Although, this was a bit of a demanding job, Alicia enjoyed it a lot. Alicia married Neil Greenberg in Manhattan, NY. In 1973, she and her husband moved to Washington, DC, where took a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. They remained in DC until 1978. Alicia was able to finish her undergraduate degree at American University, while she worked in the field of Personnel. In the fall of 1978, she moved to Knoxville, Tennessee where she went to graduate school at the University of Tennessee, and ended up with a Masters in Accounting. She then went on to Maryville College as an Assistant Professor. She enjoyed teaching very much. One summer she agreed to work in the Business Office. She ended up staying there and was responsible for computerizing the Business Office. She eventually became the Comptroller. Alicia was an avid reader and had an eclectic taste in literature. She liked to read anything from history, poetry, sociology, mysteries, and even some tawdry literary masterpieces. She was also an avid Scrabble player. Her favorite vacation and a trip she would have liked to repeat, was to Egypt in 2000. Jess, her daughter, was finishing her junior year in Greece and Alicia decided to visit her and then go to Egypt. She visited the Valley of the Kings and saw the pyramids. A trip that most only dream of. It was breathtaking. New Orleans is another place that Alicia had visited a number of times and considered it one of her favorite places. There is no doubt that Alicia had a zest for life and enjoyed the simple pleasures this world has to offer. Her hard work ethic and desire to pursue challenging careers throughout life made it obvious that she had strength beyond words. Lish's immediate family includes her daughter, Jessica Greenberg of Knoxville, TN; her sister, Pamela Berry Hodge and her husband, Charles, of Charlotte; her brother, William (Bill) Berry and his wife, Linda, of Nazareth, PA.

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