Judith Ann Davis Peterson passed away on April 23, 2019, at her home in Georgetown, Idaho. She was born May 24, 1941, at Montpelier, Bear Lake, Idaho, to Ray McKay Davis and Naomi Magdalene Fisher. She attended the Lincoln Elementary school and later graduated from Montpelier High School in 1959. She had an insatiable desire for learning and enjoyed reading church books and magazines. She also had a passion for puzzles and indexing. She enjoyed a good joke and was known to tell many. Her motto was “always keep ‘em laughing”! Her father told her she was a real wit. He was half right.
She was engaged to Duane Jay Peterson when she was seventeen years old and waited faithfully for him to complete a two-year mission in the Gulf States. He returned home November 10, 1960, and they were married in the Logan Temple on November 29, 1960. After being married five years without having children of their own, they were able to adopt two girls and two boys: Radene (named after her grandfather and uncle), Dee Jay, Jolene, and Shane Thomas. She loved her children and grandchildren with all her heart.
Judy enjoyed moving and said she inherited her Grandmother Mary Ann Brundage’s (Bunny) Moving genes. She and Duane moved forty-two times in forty-six years. They ended up living in the house where Duane was born and raised. They never regretted any of their moves and they met some wonderful people along the way.
In 1988, at age 47, she obtained an LPN license from Northwest Community College in Powell, Wyoming. Her goal was to become a nurse before she needed one. She wondered if she was too old to go to school and said she would be nearly fifty years old when she finished. Her husband told her that she would be nearly fifty years old whether she went to school or not. She went to school.
Judy worked at many different jobs: M.H. King Co., Mountain Bell (telephone operator), Central Farmers (phosphate plant), Sears, First Security Bank, Coors (brewery and no, she didn’t imbibe), Whistling Acres guest ranch (cook and housekeeper), Big Horn County Hospital (housekeeper, LPN), Park County Hospital (LPN), Manor Care (LPN), Peterson Counseling Services (office manager). After retirement, she worked for nearly ten years at Bear Lake Memorial Hospital in Montpelier, Idaho.
She was actively engaged in volunteer work when they lived in Denver, Colorado, and she especially enjoyed keeping babies in foster care until they were placed with their adoptive parents.
She was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and her husband served as ushers on temple square, were temple officiators, and together served twenty-three months in the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. She had an unshakable testimony of her Savior, Jesus Christ, and of the restored gospel brought forth by the Prophet Joseph Smith.
She is survived by her children, Radene (Todd) Rindlisbacher, Dee Jay (Linda) Peterson, Jolene Smith, Shane (Kim) Peterson, 16 grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren; brother, Dean (Lonna) Davis. She was preceded in death by her parents (who were both killed in a car accident in 1992), grandparents, her brother, Gregg.
Funeral services will be held April 27, 2019, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Georgetown Church at 12:00 pm with a viewing from 10:00 – 11:45 am prior to services.