Pyle Peterson, Ann Isabelle (1913-2013)
PYLE, PETERSON, SIMM, LEVEE, ALDERTON, CALKINS, RADKE, ALDERTON, WILSON, RUTHERFORD, CUVELIER, PETERSON, KANE, BROWNE, BARNETT, DYKES, LUONG, FRISBEE
Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 12/29/2013 at 21:46:00
Ann Isabelle Peterson Pyle
February 24, 1913 - December 03, 2013Storm Lake, Iowa
Ann Peterson Pyle, age 100, of Storm Lake, Iowa, died on December 3, 2013, at Sunset Knoll Care and Rehab Center in Aurelia, Iowa.
Ann Isabelle Simm Peterson Pyle was born on February 24, 1913, in Paullina, Iowa, the youngest of eight children born to William and Edna (LeVee) Simm who emigrated from Selside, Kendal, England in 1882.
Ann attended and graduated from Paullina High School in 1929. She attended nurses training in Iowa City but met her future husband when she came to Cherokee to work as a domestic.
On August 18, 1934, Ann married Carl Peterson in the family home in Paullina, Iowa. To this union, one daughter and five sons were born. Ann and Carl first lived in Cherokee. In 1936, they moved to Storm Lake to establish the Peterson Motors Dealership.
The consummate hostess, Ann enjoyed putting on Buena Vista sorority teas and luncheons, card parties, dinner parties, and board meetings. Instrumental in creating the Upper Des Moines Opportunity and the Storm Lake Ministerial Association, she also served as the local, area, state, and regional presidents for the American Cancer Society, the Red Cross Heart Association, and Toastmasters. Indeed, she established the Storm Lake Toastmasters group. In addition, Ann and Carl were supporters of Lakeside Presbyterian Church, Buena Vista University (then College), the Isaac Walton League, Friendly Town (of Des Moines), and numerous other organizations.
In 1961, she and Carl added an indoor swimming pool to their house and until 1976 thousands of kids from northwest Iowa from church groups, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H groups, school groups, and school classes held swimming parties in her house. Knowing that a swim works up an appetite, she served many brownies and homemade ice cream. Many a weekend, one group of kids were going out the back door while the next group of swimmers entered the front door.
Ann and Carl traveled extensively. A 4’ x 5’ photograph of Waikiki beach hung at the bottom of their stairs from the 1950s, and still does today. This picture was taken before any hotels were built. The beach was marked with only footprints. Carl and his barber, Jay Doane, both claimed the footprints as their own. I think the photo was a gift from Jay. They traveled to Japan and Europe many times winning trips from Cadillac, Yamaha, and Honda. In addition, they made many trips to Duluth, Minnesota, and Canada and visited most states. Ann most enjoyed coming up over the top of the pass into Duluth at night to see the valley, Lake Superior, and all the lights and boats. Since Carl found relief from his hay fever and asthma in Duluth, she made this long journey by car many, many times.
In the 1950s, Ann noticed that other women were starting to establish careers for themselves outside the home. Although she never worked for pay outside her own home, she attended beauty school “just in case.”
Having found a kindred soul who shared her love of dancing and the land after Carl died in 1976, Ann married Harold Pyle at Lakeside Presbyterian Church in Storm Lake, Iowa, on August 18, 1979. Together, they danced and played at “Ann’s Pasture.” They enlarged her already huge garden to include raspberries, strawberries, sweet corn, and almost every other vegetable imaginable. She planted somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 trees over the years and went through gallons of Round-Up every summer in her attack against thistles and dandelions. Ann and Harold decided they wanted animals as well and endured the trials of raising pigs, ducks, pigeons, and turkeys. They, also, traveled, making many trips to the undeveloped region of Fiji visiting a son, traveling to Ireland, Mexico, and Belize with another son and his wife, and going to Chicago to visit yet another son as well as making many other enjoyable trips. Harold died in 1995.
In 1989 at age 76, Ann sold her “in-town house” to her son, Rick, and moved out to “Ann’s Pasture” full-time. She spent the next twenty-one years happily nurturing her trees, planting her huge garden, and being the farm gal she always wanted to be. Often snowed in, she needed to leave her Cadillac on the road and take a snowmobile the last mile home, all of which only enhanced her love of her pasture.
Ann continued to travel, visiting Cabos and Chicago many times. Her 91st birthday trip to Las Vegas was one of many travel highlights. She had many grandchildren and great-grandchildren and that meant many family weddings and children’s birthdays to attend in all corners of the globe.
Known for her healthy eating and exercising dating back to at least as early as 1930, Ann always had a plate containing brightly colored healthy food. No one really knew where the sweet corn pancake idea came from, but most likely it was the result of her love of fresh sweet corn and her desire to make something as unhealthy as pancakes healthier. An exercise fanatic, she did fifty sit-ups every morning and another fifty at night. She wore out many a grand or great-grandchild on their trips to Fiji, Las Vegas, Yakima, or Chicago or while just shopping or working in the garden. She thought Curves was the best thing since sliced bread and had been in many a Curves across the country while visiting and traveling. At her 97th birthday, she was full of stories of the Olympics, and among her favorites, she sure liked Apolo Ohno. She was still “playing” at the pasture when she suffered a stroke at age 97 in April of 2010. That stroke marked the first time she needed regular medications as well as the first time she required hospitalization since the birth of her children.
Family and friends will always remember her for her faith, her zest for life and exercise, her sweet corn pancakes, her homemade ice cream, her “Pasture,” and her covered wagon.
Those left to cherish many fond memories include her children, Janice Alderton, of Storm Lake, Lee (Kay), of Yakima, Washington, Bill (Diana), of Iowa City, Jim, of New Zealand, Rick (Carol), of Storm Lake, and Paul, also of Storm Lake; her twenty-five grandchildren who will always cherish having the “coolest” grandma ever (in age order), Mary Beth Calkins, of Yakima, Washington, Anne (Dave) Radke, of Onawa, Iowa, Frank (Nancy) Alderton, of Storm Lake, Iowa, Nancy (Pat) Wilson, of Storm Lake, Lisa Rutherford, of Yakima, Washington, Mark Alderton, of Phoenix, Arizona, Lynn (Dean) Cuvelier, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, Jim (Sandra) Peterson, of Yakima, Washington, Daniel (Lisa) Alderton, of Altadena, California, Benjamin Alderton, of Denver, Colorado, Brent (Lora) Peterson, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Molly (Michael) Kane, of Yakima, Washington, Kerris Browne, of Rotorura, New Zealand, Leigh Ann (Andy) Barnett, of Chicago, Illinois, Leah (Karl) Dykes, of New Zealand, Jenelle (Alin) Peterson, of Maui, Hawaii, Tom (Hanh) Luong-Peterson, of Katy, Texas, Jacob Peterson, of New Zealand, Olen (Mika) Peterson, of Hiroshima, Japan, Erick Peterson, of Chicago, Illinois, Michael Peterson, of New Zealand, Maya Peterson, of Houston, Texas, and Kelsey, Brian, and Sonya Peterson, of Chicago, Illinois; as well as twenty-six great grandchildren and seven great-great grandchildren.
Ann was preceded in death by her parents; her husbands, Carl Peterson and Harold Pyle; her brothers, John, Willie, Richard, William, and James Simm; her sister, Edna Frisbee; and two grandchildren, Darrel John Alderton and Mark Andrew Peterson; as well as by many other cherished relatives.
The family invites all that attend the service to attend a celebration of a full and long life and fellowship time immediately following the service.
Memorial Service: 11:00 p.m., December 05, 2013, at Lakeside Presbyterian Church in Storm Lake, Iowa.
Memorials may be made to the Salvation Army.
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Buena Vista Obituaries maintained by LaVern Velau.
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