Mary Elizabeth Peterson

Mary Elizabeth Bacon Peterson passed away in her home on January 25, 2024. She was 82.

Mary was born in Sugar City, Idaho, on February 17, 1941. She grew up surrounded by her grandparents, great-grandmother, and great-uncles, and she spent much of her time making her own fun in the great outdoors. She enjoyed camping, riding horses, and getting into mischief. 

Mary attended Sugar Salem High School, where she did well academically and began dating the love of her life, Grant Mark Peterson. She later said the attraction was immediate. After Mary moved to Spanish Fork, Utah, the couple visited on weekends whenever possible and wrote many letters. They continued writing to each other while Grant served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany, and after his return, they married in the Manti, Utah, temple on July 3, 1964. 

After marriage, Mary and Grant lived in Utah while Grant attended Brigham Young University, then University of Utah School of Medicine. The first three of Mary and Grant’s children were born during Grant’s schooling.

After medical school, Grant served in the army as a doctor on base in Frankfurt, Germany. The family lived there from 1973–76. Next, Mary and her family returned to Idaho and settled in Blackfoot, where she had two more children. 

When Grant retired, he and Mary built a house in Shelley, then soon left it to serve a mission in Bellevue, Washington. Immediately after, they served a second mission from their home in Shelley. Mary was proud of their service on their missions and as temple workers in the Swiss, Rexburg, and Idaho Falls temples. 

Mary enjoyed traveling in her retirement. She and Grant adventured extensively both in the US and around the globe, including Europe, Canada, China, Central America, Australia, and New Zealand. 

After Grant passed away in 2018, Mary missed him deeply, but she never stopped living by the advice she gave her son when teaching him to drive a car with a clutch: "Step on the damn gas!" She gardened, sewed, took her entire extended family on a cruise to Alaska, worked in the temple, visited her children and grandchildren, and cooked for half the population of Idaho. 

Mary is preceded in death by her parents, Susan Emma Marler and Gardner Jones Bacon; her brother, Gardner Melvin Bacon; and her husband. She is survived by her sister, Carolyn Miller (Buddy), and her children: Erika Leavitt (Michael), Heidi Weaver (Glen), Mandee Peterson, LeNell Jensen (John), and Royce Peterson (Mandy). Lastly, Mary is survived by her 21 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 A.M. Friday, February 2, 2024 at the Firth Stake Center, 823 N 675 E, in Basalt. The family will receive friends Thursday evening from 6:00 till 7:30 P.M at Nalder Funeral Home, 110 West Oak Street, in Shelley and Friday morning from 9:30 till 10:45 A.M. at the church. Burial will be at 2:30 p.m. in the Plano Cemetery.

Those who would like to participate in the funeral service remotely are invited to view the service on a live broadcast at https://xwyqzl9y.r.us-east-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2Fzoom.us%2Fj%2F98808934097/1/0100018d05476d68-0df63b24-b963-445e-9e15-7391562107fd-000000/gugfOpg6-ETWLFVnFlkA9Sq4CFs=356

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