Mary Louise Peterson

Mary Louise Peterson, 84, of Olathe, KS, the daughter of Louis G. Pavlakos –Smith and Bertha Leavitt Smith was born in Lawrence, KS on February 15, 1927 and died April 30, 2011 in Olathe, KS.
At the age of 2, the family moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma where she lived until they moved to Salina, KS in 1941. She graduated from Salina High School in 1944. She attended Marymount College in Salina, KS when she married the love of her life, Wilbur Peterson, on September 11, 1948. Mary graduated from Marymount College in 1971 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Education. She enjoyed teaching both the elementary and middle school levels for 21 years, retiring in 1992.
Over the years, Mary was a Cub Scout Den leader, Sunday School teacher, and loved gardening, reading, working in stained glass and traveling with her husband to each of their roots in Norway and Greece. Mary always said with her bouts of breast cancer and later with non-Hodgkins lymphoma- she was a tough Greek Spartan.
She belonged to Eastern Star and Kansas National Education Association and Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in Blue Springs, MO; being active in the church she served as a deacon.
Mary placed great value and love in her family and was proud of her Greek heritage.
She was preceded in death by her husband and soulmate of 62 years, Wilbur Peterson, and her brother Donald L. Smith. Surviving are her sons Mark (Becky) of Salina, KS, David (Dawn) of Austin, TX, John (Melanie) Buckner, MO, Paul (Laura) of Olathe, KS, and daughter Diane (Tom) Hevener of Olathe, KS, her beloved grandchildren Ted, Ellen, Michael, Julie, Nicholas, Emma, Waverly, Elise, Treyton, and Erica, and great-grandchildren, Riley, Addison, and Parker.
In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.