Britt's Biography

Britt Perrotta Sommerfield

9/26/1982 -- 12/29/2008

Britt was born on September 26, 1982 to her parents Dean and Angela Sommerfield. She grew up in White Lake, Michigan in a friendly neighborhood known as Lakewood Village. Most of her childhood days were carefree, fun, and beautiful. However, when Britt was eight years old her mom passed away from breast cancer. Life was still good after this, but harder. She and her sister, Cara, became very close.

Britt was always a smart little cookie. She went to Lakewood Elementary, Holy Name Middle School (where she stirred the pot a little, just ask Jessica Ewing), and Lakeland High School. She always excelled in school and became very active. At Lakeland she played four years of basketball, four years of volleyball, three years of track, and one year of soccer, where she met many of her friends. She was also the class treasurer for four years. She started doing some community service projects in high school, like Toys for Tots. She got several academic scholarships to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor as a result. The highlight came when she gave the speech as her class valedictorian. This was well deserved and she was always well received.

At the University of Michigan she was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority. In her junior year she became one of the younger members of the pan Hellenic council. She acted as liaison with the Michigan Daily, the student newspaper. Her job was to show the rest of the student body what community service projects the sororities and fraternities were doing, and to try to dispel the idea that they were only a bunch of partiers. As a sophomore she also helped run a community service project in Detroit called “Project Detroit” where students went into Detroit and did various community service projects. She and others also visited the children in Mott’s Children Hospital.

Britt was a huge Michigan sports fan, especially football… mainly because her dad dragged her along to around 70 football games before she even got to Michigan. There are some papers written about her by her fourth grade classmates where the most common things said about her were smart, good reader, great in math, and most of them mentioned how big a Michigan fan she was – even back then.

After being graduated from the University of Michigan with two degrees, a BA in Economics and a BA in Communications, Britt moved to Chicago and worked for Performance Trust, a bond brokerage. Then she moved on to Magnetar Capital, a hedge fund, where she was a trader. Her boss, Yoon, said she was very appreciated there for what she did for the company and always lit up the room when she walked in with her big hazel eyes and that big beautiful smile. It was in Chicago where Britt met Dave Raphael and fell in love. She and Dave were together for four years...which surely would have been many more. Britt loved the city...Mitch's sushi at Toro, Cubs games, fantastic dinners out, and especially Dave's company.

Britt was beautiful both inside and out. Even still, she suffered from an eating disorder which eventually took her life. While she was strong and fiesty in her own right, she was unable to fight this battle within herself. Britt was 26 years old when she passed away.

Britt was classic, brilliant, loyal, kind and truly timeless. She was proud to be a Perrotta and a Sommerfield and she loved her family deeply. Although she left us far too soon, she accomplished much while she was here. Things were said about Britt, like how elegant she was in a room of people, that she was the sweetest person they ever knew, and even that people who had only met her once loved her.

Britt was loved and admired by many...and she will be missed by all who knew her.