M. Eva Peterson

Born M. Eva Thompson on November 15, 1915, on a farm outside of Ross, North Dakota, the youngest of 10 children, she came to the West coast in 1937 to care for three nieces whose mother was critically ill. She worked as a stenographer and bookkeeper in Portland, Oregon, and in 1941 met and married Walter A. Peterson. They lived on acreage on the outskirts of Portland until 1946, when they moved to Seattle, where her husband worked for San Juan Fishing and Packing Company. They settled into a new house on 2nd Avenue N.W. in the Broadview area. She was hard-working, a fulltime homemaker, loving wife and mother who, with a sense of adventure, moved with her husband and 3 children in 1954 to a remote Alaskan village where she worked summers for the salmon cannery and winters in the company store. In 1956, the family moved back to Seattle; she returned with her husband to work several summers in Alaska. In 1967, after the children had finished school, she moved to Pago Pago, American Samoa, where her husband was foreman at a Star Kist Tuna cannery. Upon their return to Seattle, they lived on Queen Anne Hill. Following the death of her husband, Walter A. Peterson, in 1978, she moved to Ballard, where she kept a garden and made many friends. Through the years, she was active in the Milk Fund, March of Dimes, Bethel Presbyterian Church, many PTAs, and Cub, Boy and Girl Scouts. She is survived by three children: Lawrence Walter Peterson, Egegik, AK; Beverly Peterson Stearns, Hamden, CT; Bradley Steven Peterson, Edmonds, WA.; grandsons Eric and Lars Peterson, Justin and Jason Stearns, and a great-grandson, Mattheus Pieter Stearns. Also surviving her is a sister, Tommie Scott, Portland, OR, and numerous nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at Evergreen-Washelli Chapel, 11111 Aurora Avenue North, Seattle, WA. on Saturday, April 28, 2007 12noon. Instead of sending flowers, the family suggests planting flowers or a tree.