May 15, 1924- July 21, 2019)
Dorothy Sylvia Peterson, née Christensen, of Buffalo, Minnesota, died Sunday, July 21, 2019. She had been in diminishing health since a stroke in January, 2018. She was 95 years old.
Dorothy was born May 15, 1924, the first child of Arthur and Palma Christensen of Starbuck, Minnesota. Upon completing high school in Faribault, Minnesota, in 1942, she entered the Signal Corps of the War Department serving in Kansas City, Missouri. After World War II ended, she joined her parents, brother and sister in Buffalo, where she met her husband Raymond Peterson at choir rehearsal at Zion Lutheran Church. Dorothy and Ray married in 1946; established an interior finishing and decorating firm, Do-Ra Decorators; and built the first flat-roofed mid-century modern house in Buffalo. The births of their children spanned the early baby boom: from 1947 to 1957. They were active in Zion Lutheran Church, notably its choir; the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, especially Buffalo Days; fund-raising for the then new building of Buffalo Memorial Hospital; and the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
After Ray’s death in 1962, Dorothy continued her family’s involvement in Zion Lutheran Church, the wider community, and politics. She attended her children’s sports, theater, band and choir activities. She took active leadership roles in the Girl Scouts of the USA, the American Legion Auxiliary, the American Heart Association, the Wright County Retirement Center, Functional Industries Incorporated, and the City of Buffalo Planning Commission. At home she was an avid hostess and gardener.
Dorothy closed the books of Do-Ra Decorators not long after Ray’s death. Later she worked for local retailers of jewelry, home furnishings, furniture, window treatments and floor coverings. In 1974 she opened her own interior decorating service, Interiors by Dorothy, which she continued for over a decade. She made the enjoyment of color and pattern part of her life and her profession.
Dorothy was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her infant sister, Gloria Christensen; and her brother, Arthur Christensen Jr. She is survived by her sister, Mary Christensen of Tucson, Arizona; her children, Gregory Peterson of Buffalo, Minnesota, Randine McColl of Forks, Washington, and Bradley Peterson of San Francisco, California; great-grandchildren Max and Grady; and nieces and nephews with families across the US.
There will be no memorial service. Her ashes will be interred privately at Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Buffalo. Memorial donations in her memory may be to the American Heart Association, the choral music program of Zion Lutheran Church of Buffalo, or any charity of the giver’s choice.