For 47 years, Perry hawked The Raleigh Times, then The News & Observer, on the streets of downtown Raleigh.

The newspaper industry changed vastly since Perry begin selling single copies around 1950. By the time he finally cast aside his newsboy bag, about 10 years ago, the Internet had come of age. Newspaper racks dotted the city.

A typical day saw him unload only 40 to 50 newspapers, the bulk of those to regular customers who preferred the personal interaction of dropping 50 cents into Perry's hand to the impersonal clink of coins in a vending machine or the morning's paper on the front lawn, tossed there anonymously in the dawn hours.

Edward Allen Perry died a week ago at age 81. He had severe osteoarthritis, and his sister, Margaret Marshall, is convinced he "walked himself to death" going back and forth on foot from outside Garner to Raleigh to sell papers.

Perry was born in Oriental in 1927 to a family of newspaper readers and spent much of his childhood in Granville County. He was mildly disabled, which made it hard for him to pursue a career.

"It evolved that selling the paper on the street was the best thing he could do," Marshall said.

Perry moved throughout the day, but his favorite spot was on Salisbury Street behind the old Hudson Belk department store. He'd wheel his diminutive pushcart to that spot every day at lunchtime and don his newsboy bag.

The Raleigh Times was an afternoon paper available around lunchtime; The News & Observer is printed at night for morning delivery. After The Raleigh Times folded in 1989, Perry never adjusted his sales schedule.

"He still came in at noontime, and he'd go up and sell the morning paper," said Curt Phipps, former circulation manager for The Raleigh Times. "And the same people still bought them."

Perry's coordination was poor, and his mannerisms could seem characteristic of autism at times. Phipps recalled how he liked order and routine and how he remembered the darnedest things.

He knew how many copies he'd sold on a specific day a year earlier or what the front page contained five years ago or how many pages were in the newspaper on a certain date.

On the street, he had a spiel, a run-on sentence monologue about what was in the paper that day and how it differed from the news on the same day the previous year.

"You couldn't always decipher what he was saying, but he talked nonstop," Phipps said. "Things like, 'Last year on this day we had 82 pages, and I sold 27 copies.' "

Perry never learned to drive. He lived between Garner and Clayton and took the bus to work until the route changed. He rode a bicycle until he had an accident. He hitched rides, but often he walked, 10 miles each way.

During a break, he'd visit the woman at Belk who sold calculators. With each paper he sold, he'd figure out his earnings -- about a quarter per copy, Phipps said -- then check his math on a calculator at the store. The saleswoman told Perry's niece, Elaine Annis, that he was never wrong.

At home, he kept a coin sorter. He'd organize his pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters each day and tally the total. Each Sunday, he gave one-tenth of his earnings to his church.

Perry lived alone his entire adult life but more recently moved to Lawndale Manor, an assisted living center in Garner where his mother lives.

Essie Liles Perry will be 105 in September. She still reads The News & Observer.

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Edward Perry is survived by his mother, Essie, and two sisters.

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