Helen Peterson

Newport, RI - Helen Estella Starrett Peterson, 92, of Dexter Street and John Clarke Retirement Center, Middletown, RI, died Tuesday, February 15, 2011 in Newport Hospital after a brief illness. She was the wife of John H. Peterson who survives her. Born in Providence, RI on November 25, 1918, she was the daughter of the late Chester E.A. and Mary Thompson Starrett.While growing up as the daughter of educators, she always looked forward to the end of the school year and summers in Maine. She attended the Katharine Gibbs School and received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Brown University Pembroke College in 1940. After college she worked at the Providence Journal, then in Maryland, Kentucky, and Indiana supporting Seagrams war effortand later at the Rumford Chemical Company. In 1947 she married her John Peterson, in a ceremony at the family farm in Warren, Maine, where her ancestors had settled in 1736. When her children were older, she returned to the work-force, becoming a library assistant at the Middletown Public Library. She retired in 1978. For more than 25 years afterward, she served as a volunteer, delivering books to shut-ins. Retaining her dry wit and a remarkable memory up through her last days, she was a life-long collector of anecdotes, trivia, ephemera and friends. Helen traveled to Hawaii, Scandinavia, and Australia for the Cup races, and cruised with friends. She especially loved Maine. A long-time congregant of St. Peters Lutheran Church, she taught Sunday school and served in their Lutheran Church Women Association for more than 30 years. She was also a board member of Church Women United. She volunteered for Meals on Wheels, and was a member of Friends of the Middletown Library, Middletown Historical Society, the Norman Bird Sanctuary and the Georgetown and Warren Maine Historical societies. Besides her husband, she is survived by her children, J. H. Peterson, his wife, Jolynn Johnson of St. Michael, Minnesota, Christine Peterson of Portsmouth, RI and William Peterson and his wife, Gini Stoddard of N. Chittenden, Vermont, her nephews, Hugh Starrett, Raymond Starrett D. Bruce Hanes and Carl Hanes and her niece Susan Stillman, Rosemary McCarthy Hanes, and Virginia Hanes, along with several cousins, great nephews and great nieces. She was the sister of the late Kenneth E. Starrett and Donald O. Starrett. Calling hours will be held on Sunday, February 20, 2011, from 4-6pm in the Memorial Funeral Home, 375 Broadway, Newport. Her funeral will be held on Monday, February 21, 2011, at 11:00 am in St. Peters Lutheran Church, 525 Broadway, Newport. Burial will be private.In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a charity of ones choice.