Obituary of Marie J. Peterson

Marie J. Peterson June 5, 1924 - November 25, 2014 Marie J. Peterson (nee Kawamura) died unexpectedly at her home on November 25th, 2014 at age 90. She was born in Seattle, Washington on June 5, 1924 to Robert Y. Kawamura and Yasuyo Watanabe Kawamura. When she was 17, Marie was incarcerated with her parents in a Japanese internment camp in Idaho, Minidoko, during WWII along with 9,000 other Japanese-Americans. Marie's older sister Mary, who was in nursing, was able to arrange Marie's sponsorship by the Catholic Church in Minneapolis, where the two sisters shared a room in the basement of a hospital. There she completed her secondary school studies and enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where she studied nursing and met her husband, the very handsome and brilliant John Peterson, in French class. Upon graduating, she joined the Army Nurse Corps and served in the burn units at veteran's hospitals in Tennessee and California. John and Marie married in 1950. While John and Marie were raising their five children, they moved from Schenectady, NY, to Kansas City to Chicago to Louisville and finally to Fairfield, Ct. for John's career as a finance executive for GE. As Marie recalled, "I knew the next transfer would come when I finally got the curtains up." The Petersons finally settled in Fairfield, where John retired in 1984 after 37 years with GE. Their Connecticut home became the hearth of the family for the holidays, especially the Fourth of July when their sons and sons-in-law would (illegally) shoot off firework in the backyard, much to the chagrin of the law-abiding John and Marie. Predeceased by her husband, John, who died in 2004, Marie moved to Larchmont where, despite the creep of vascular dementia, she maintained her effortlessly sweet demeanor. Marie enjoyed visiting her children, painting and reading the Paris Review. She was a fan of George Clooney, Nora Ephron, and Derek Jeter, appreciated the antics of the Golden Girls, Woody Allen and Modern Family, and enjoyed dining out in Larchmont with her family. Periodic moments of clarity from the past delighted her family as she would recall her old addresses and phone numbers, her time in the internment camp, gospel spirituals, and the time she followed a boy to Berkeley and ended up spending the summer with his mother (sans the boy). She and her older sister Mary reunited in their old age, spending summers together, laughing happily at their mutual confusion. In 1943 their brother, Juniko joined the segregated all Japanese 442 Regiment, which was the most decorated unit of its size in US military history. Juniko passed away in 2004. Marie is survived by her sister Mary, her five children, Christine Allison (Wick) of Dallas, TX, Virginia Bauer (David) of Larchmont, John Peterson (Amy) of Louisville, KY, Barbara Krueger of Woodinville, WA and Tom Peterson of Denver, CO and her thirteen grandchildren; Gillea, Maisie, Chrissie and Loddie Allison, Callie, Johnny and Anna Bauer, Lucy and Jack Peterson, and Katie, Alison, Johnny and Mayme Krueger, nieces Joann Kawamura of Minneapolis, MN, Lani Kawamura of Washington, DC, Liz Tippens (Bud) of Celina, TX and nephew, Jean-Marc Chapus (Victoria) of Beverly Hills, CA. Marie will be dearly missed by all. Family will receive friends at the funeral home Monday 11 am until 12 noon. Funeral service at the funeral home at 12 noon followed by an interment at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Fairfield, CT.