Born in Danielson, Connecticut, Angie Warren Perkins received the AB (1876) and MA (1879) from Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut) where she was one of the first four women admitted when the institution adopted a coeducational policy (it later discontinued coeducation for many years). She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She served as assistant professor of French and Latin at Wellesley College in 1879–80 and was lady principal at Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisconsin) from 1881 to 1883. She married Charles Albert Perkins in September 1883 and came with him to the university in 1892. On campus, she actively advocated admission of women to the university and was instrumental in the decision to admit women to the Teacher’s Department.
The board of trustees appointed her acting dean of the Women’s Department in June 1898, a position she held without pay. She was extremely active in civic affairs. In 1895 she made the closing address (equivalent to the commencement address) at the Knoxville Female Institute, upon the topic “Women in Literature.” In 1896–97, she served as president of the Ossoli Circle and as secretary of the newly formed State Federation of Women’s Clubs. She served as regent of the Bonny Kate Chapter of the DAR, president of the Southern Association of College Women, president of the Writers’ Club, treasurer of the Travelers’ Aid Society, a member of the board of directors of the Women’s Building, and as a director of the YWCA. She was vice president of the executive department of the National Educational Association.
She was elected to the Knoxville Board of Education and became the first woman in Tennessee to hold the office of president of a school board when she was elected president of the Knoxville board on January 8, 1918. She was the author of two travel books: San Diego to Sitka (1903) and Our Year Abroad. She was a longtime collector of fine antiques and oriental rugs. Following her death, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident, her husband established a permanent library endowment of $1,000 in her honor at the university.