Grace Hanson Peterson; Store Owner
Grace Hanson Peterson, who ran a ceramics shop in Santa Paula for nearly 30 years, died early Wednesday of respiratory failure. She was 96.
Born in 1896 in Swan Lake, S.D., Peterson was the oldest of nine children in a close-knit, pioneer family.
About 1914, Peterson was hired as the first woman proofreader for the South Dakota state Legislature, said Peterson’s sister, Geraldine Costello, 85, of Marysville, Wash.
Peterson held varied jobs throughout her life, including tractor driver on a local farm, owner and operator of an ice cream store, and teaching at a local business school. She also worked as a legal secretary and as a government inspector of military aircraft during World War II.
In 1947, Peterson opened her first ceramics shop in El Segundo. She moved to Santa Paula with her family in 1963 and with her husband, Eugene Peterson, opened another ceramics shop. After her husband’s death in 1968, she continued running the store alone for 20 years, retiring at age 92.
She is survived by sons Philip Peterson of Newbury Park; John Peterson of Reseda; Alan Peterson of Santa Paula; Roger Peterson of Calabasas; 15 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. Other survivors include Costello, another sister in Crescent City, Calif., and a brother in Los Angeles.
Memorial services will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at Santa Paula First Presbyterian Church. Arrangements are being made by Pierce Brothers Stetler Mortuary in Santa Paula.
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