Leone Arlis Peterson

Leone Arlis Peterson, age 89, of Brownsdale, Minnesota, passed away on Sunday, September 13, 2026, after nine days in the ICU at Mayo Clinic Hospital Rochester, Saint Marys Campus.

Leone was born on June 2, 1937. Her parents were Cyril and Opal Pirkl. She had one sister, Bonnie. She was raised on a small farm west of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota. She had no brothers, so Leone, being the oldest child, did a lot of farm chores usually done by a son. She helped with milking, as this was a dairy farm, so cattle and chickens, along with a large garden, were the family’s source of income and food.

She attended a country school that was about a mile down the road through 8th grade. In the warmer months, she would walk back and forth to school along a gravel road. In winter months, a group of neighbors would take turns driving the kids back and forth to school. Lunch was usually soup, which parents took turns providing. The teacher would warm it up on the school stove at noon. She completed her education, grades 9 through 12, at Blooming Prairie High School. Being picked on by the Townies was common at the time.

In 9th grade she met Don Peterson, and by 10th grade they were going steady. After graduation, Don went into the Army, and six months later she traveled to New Jersey where Leone and Don were married in a small Army chapel. Thirty days later, Don was transferred to Europe, and Leone returned to Minnesota. Six months later, Don had saved enough money to buy her a ticket to join him in Occupied West Berlin, 110 miles behind the Iron Curtain. During that time, they traveled to explore other parts of Germany as well as London, Paris, and Switzerland.

She returned to Minnesota when she learned she was expecting their first child. Over the years, four more children joined the first. Leone and her family lived in a home about a mile down the road from her mom and dad after Don returned from his tour of duty in Berlin. Don worked at a variety of jobs until he took a position at the bank in Brownsdale in 1966, where he worked until he retired at the end of December 1999.

Leone was a homemaker, and she loved it! She made three meals every day, much of which came from a very large garden; baked bread twice a week; maintained several flower gardens around their large lot; enjoyed sewing clothing for her children as well as herself; and figured out how to paint their house by doing one side each year for four years when it needed it. She loved dancing and traveling, and was a talented artist.

Leone and her husband, Don, celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on March 29 of this year.

A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 19, 2026, at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Brownsdale, Minnesota. The visitation will take place one hour prior to the service. Interment will be held at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, September 21, 2026, in Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery, Preston. Worlein-Hoff Funeral Homes of Austin are assisting the family with arrangements.