Kathleen Theresa Peterson

Kathleen Duchscher Peterson, simply Kathy to all that knew her, born to John and Catherine Duchscher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 14, 1943, and sister to Johnny and Geraldine. Her family moved to Blackfoot, Idaho when she was very young. It was here that she grew up and went to school. After graduating highschool she ventured out to California where she met her first love Michael Stone, and gave birth to Phillip Stone. She later divorced and moved back to Idaho, settling down in Pocatello, where she met and married William Tripp, and gave birth to her daughter Sheri Tripp. This marriage later ended, and Kathy focussed on working on her career at Idaho State University. She later met and married David Peterson.

Kathy was a happy, well-loved character, occasionally known to her coworkers as ‘Potty Mouth Peterson”. This name was in jest, because it would have to be an extreme situation for anything slightly offensive to come from her mouth. She was always good for a nice clean joke, however, regardless of whether the joke was two lines or 5 minutes long, she could tell the whole joke, but never could she recall the punchline.

Her career at ISU, started as a computer key punch operator, for those of us that are old enough to know what that is. She later moved to Data Processing in the Registration and Records Department, and after working there for quite a while, she made a move to Administrative Specialist in the Engineering Department. It was here she would work until she retired.

Kathy’s passions were her cats that she doted over, and the Christmas season. After Thanksgiving, many of the family photos came down and were replaced with Christmas angels, the garland was wrapped around the banister, and the house was decked out with festive knick-knacks. She loved hosting the Christmas Eve dinner, where she would do a lot of cooking and getting things set up. All kinds of family and friends would stop by, bringing their contributions to the dinner, making it quite the feast.

After all had plenty to eat, there were gifts for everyone. Kathy was always generous and thoughtful with the gifts, but that was only half of the present. There was a lot of care taken in the gift wrapping, and they were always adorned with a variety of wide ribbon, wrapped around the gift, and then she would craft her own large decorative bow out of the same ribbon. After the ribbon was carefully secured, she would craft things such as locomotives out of rolls of Lifesaver candies, peppermint candies for the wheels, and Hershey’s Kisses for the smoke stack. These would also then be secured to the package.

She was a wonderful cook also; one of her best dishes was her chili. It would take her over half a day for her to produce this heavenly dish. When asked for the recipe she would laugh and say there was no such thing. We often requested, at the very least, for her to give us the ingredients, her reply was always the same, “Oh, a little of this and a little of that”. And that was it, no more was revealed after that.

Kathy was a warm caring person, that was loved by all that knew her, and she will leave a large hole in this world.

She is survived by husband Dave Peterson, son Phillip Stone, daughter Sheri Tripp, sister Geraldine CedeBaca, grandchildren Eric Stone, and Brittany Hale.

A Memorial Mass will be held January 11, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Joseph's Catholic Church.

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