The Daily Gazette, Sterling-Rock Falls, Illinois

October 28, 1985 - Monday, pg A4

 

 

 

LEONARD  L.  PETERSON, 75, of 1514 Gregdon Shores, Sterling, died suddenly Sunday morning in his winter home at 5 Galena Court, Jamaica Bay West, Ft. Myers, Fla. 

 

Funeral services for Mr. Peterson will be held on Wednesday morning with a prayer service at 10 a.m. at the Allen Funeral Home in Sterling, followed by Mass of the Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Sterling with Rev. Francis McDonnell officiating. Graveside services will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Riverview Cemetery in Streator, with Rev. Joe Kuczborski, associate pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church of Streator presiding. Friends may call at the Allen Funeral home in Sterling on Tuesday from 4-8 p.m.  A memorial has been established in his memory.

 

Mr. Peterson was born on March 21, 1910 in Tampico, the son of Oscar and Hilma Sofia Peterson. He attended Tampico Schools, Cornell College and then went to Western Illinois University at Macomb. He received his Masters Degree at the University of Wisconsin. He taught school and was superintendent of the grade school and high school at Grand Ridge. Mr. Peterson went to the west coast and was employed with the Immigration and Naturalization Department of the U.S. Government for ten years.

 

After returning to Sterling, he became affiliated with the W. B. Wetzdell Insurance Agency from 1949 until 1957.  Mr. Peterson then started the Peterson Insurance Agency, better known today as the Peterson, Detweiler, Book & Klocke, Ltd., Insurance Agency. He was founder and chairman of the board, retiring on Jan. 1, 1966.  The deceased was past president of the Life Underwriters Association, past president of the Sterling-Rock Falls Independent Insurance Association, past president of the Rock Falls Rotary Club and a current member. He was a former member of the Sterling Elks Lodge and the Sterling Moose Lodge 927.

 

Leonard Peterson was united in marriage to Irene M. Noon on May 25, 1935 in Pekin. The couple celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary this past summer at the Rock River Country Club. 

 

Surviving are his wife, Irene, one son, Donald C. Peterson of Sterling; three grandchildren, Donald Jr., Jennifer and Amie Peterson, all of Sterling; one sister, Mrs. Mildred Smith of Tampico; two brothers, Virgil Peterson of Tampico and Vernon Peterson of Prophetstown and several nieces and nephews.

 

He was preceded in death by his parents and one son, Bruce Lee Peterson.