Vera (Frowick) PETERSON WESTBY

FROWICK, PETERSON, WESTBY, EDWARDS, OSTRANDER, PELZ

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/30/2006 at 13:08:36

Vera Peterson Westby, 91, of Eagle Grove, died Thursday, December 22, 2005, at the Rotary Ann Nursing Home in Eagle Grove. Funeral services were held on Tuesday, December 27, 2005, at the Immanuel Lutheran Church, Forest City. Pastor Barb Spaulding officiated. Burial was in the Oakland Cemetery, Forest City.

Vera Frowick was born September 13, 1914 in Juliaetta, Idaho, the daughter of Harry and Lucy Frowick. After living in Lakeland, Florida for five years, in 1920 the family moved back to Thompson, Iowa where Vera grew up on the Michaelson family farm and graduated in 1931 from high school. After graduating from the American Institute of Business in 1921, she worked in Des Moines as a secretary for the president of Bankers Life Insurance Company until 1940. While working in Des Moines, she met Roy L. Peterson and they were married April 2, 1938 in Omaha, Nebraska. They moved to Winnebago County in 1941, eventually making their home in Forest City, where Vera worked as a legal secretary for Nels Branstad from 1952 to 1960. In 1960, she ran for and won the election for the Clerk of the District Court, a position she held until her retirement in 1976. In 1961, Roy passed away from a heart attack. On August 14, 1982 she married Joseph Westby. They enjoyed living in Decorah, Clarion and Mesa, Arizona. Vera was active in the Lutheran Church women's circle, Federated Club, Republican Women, Sons of Norway, bridge club and served on the United Fund Board. She also enjoyed knitting, china painting, oil painting, gardening and traveling.

Vera is survived by one son, Clinton Peterson of Palm Desert, California; one daughter, Diane Edwards and husband, Paul of Clarion; two granddaughters and their husbands; three great-granddaughters; one brother, Larry; and one sister, Isabelle. Vera was preceded in death by her parents; husbands, Roy Peterson and Joseph Westby; two sisters, Luluvon Ostrander and Edna Pelz; and a brother, Lloyd Frowick.

December 29, 2005
© Wright County Monitor 2005