Wednesday, May 8, 2024
March 13, 1938 – March 17, 2020
Barbara was born in Wenatchee to Modest and Dorothy Peters of Manson, and passed away at her home in Seattle.
A great deal of life and joy went on between those two dates. Barbara lived a full and satisfying life, filled with friends, travel, work, and play, maintaining a constant positive attitude that buoyed those around her.
She grew up in Manson on the shores of Lake Chelan. Attending Manson schools, she was involved in many activities: student body treasurer, honor society, homecoming queen, school newspaper, Pep Club, and school plays.
After graduation, she attended Washington State College (now University) for 2 years.
Then she moved to Spokane and went to work in the office for the Max J Kuney Construction Company, working with managers and estimators and flying in the company plane to various highway, dam, and bridge construction sites.
While in Spokane, she married Lee Richmond but the marriage didn’t last long.
She started taking evening classes at Whitworth College, obtaining a degree in education in 1967. She took a teaching job in Auburn, Washington, where she worked for the next 30 years until her retirement in 1998.
Over the decades of teaching 4th and 5th graders, several of her students went on to have children of their own who lived in her district and insisted their children must be in Miss Peters’ class. She was constantly trying out new ways of keeping children engaged and interested, with all kinds of hands-on devices, arts, and crafts.
She spent many summers with her parents on Lake Chelan, renewing old friendships, and occasionally traveled overseas.
Barbara was a voracious reader, like her mother. She had a large hardback volume of all Jane Austin’s stories which she read through once each year. Her favorite singers were Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Torme, and her favorite sports were football and baseball. From teaching, she had a group of friends who met regularly over the years in a round-robin pattern of hosting, sharing meals, gift-giving, and reinforcing companionship.
She and her brother John bought a condo in Seattle, and she moved there when she retired. Having visited Arizona with friends, her dream was to have a winter home there. After retirement, she had a home built in Sun City Grande in Surprise, Arizona, and spent many winters there. In 2017, she sold her Arizona home and moved back to Seattle. Soon thereafter she moved into the Bayview continuing care facility into a room with a breathtaking view of Seattle, the Space Needle, Mount Rainier, and Puget Sound. A carryover from her years as a teacher, she immediately learned everyone’s name at Bayview, made many new friends, and very much enjoyed spending her final years there.
Her brother Ed and his wife Barbara both passed away in recent months. She is survived by her brother Don (Marlene) in Spokane, her brother John in Manson, niece Cynde Lund of Bothell, nephew Gary Lund of Seattle, nephew David Peters of Woodinville, and many friends and former classmates.
Memorial donations may be made to the Peters Family Scholarship Fund c/o Community Foundation of North Central Washington, 9 S. Wenatchee Ave, Wenatchee WA 98801 to benefit graduates
