Marie Vera Ward Petersen died on Friday, Aug. 18, 2000, at her home in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 22, at Campbell-Aman Funeral Home, with the Rev. Lee Greiss officiating. Interment will be in the Blair Cemetery. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.

Marie V. Petersen was born in Kennard on Nov. 7, 1908 to Norris Elwyn and Metta Luetta (Millrons) Ward.

She grew up in rural Washington County, graduated from Blair High School, and received her teaching certificate from Midland College in Fremont.

She began teaching the lower grades at Rose Hill School in Washington County at the age of 16. Part of her duties as a teacher included stoking the furnace each morning when the weather was cold.

Raised in the Methodist Church, Mrs. Petersen joined Kuntz Memorial Lutheran Church in Omaha when she married in 1931. She was a member of Luther Memorial Church in Omaha, and Resurrection Lutheran Church in Chattanooga, and had attended Trinity Lutheran in Hixson.

She served as a member of the Ladies’ Aid Society at First English Lutheran Church in Cleveland, Ohio, Esther Circle and Altar Guild at Luther Memorial. She was an active member of her church until her health began failing a few years ago.

Prior to moving to Chattanooga five years ago, Mrs. Petersen had lived most of her adult life in Omaha. She and her husband, the late Clarence Petersen also resided in Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio, for many years.

In addition to her teaching, she worked with her husband for Copy Papers Co. for many years and then for Doctor’s Hospital in Cleveland as bookkeeper.

She is survived by her daughter, Marilyn Gehrke; grandchildren, Deborah and Kevin LaGoo, Rick and Jennifer Gehrke, Alan Gehrke, and Roer and Anne Gehrke; and four great-grandchildren, all of Chattanooga; one brother and sister-in-law, Merle and Ellen Ward of Herman; and sisters-in-law, Arlene Ward of Herman, Myrtle Boschult and Georgia Petersen, both of Fremont, and Ellen Van Loan of Scottsdale, Ariz.; and many nieces and nephews.

Mrs. Petersen was preceded in death by her husband, brothers, Myron and Russell Ward; grandson, David Robert Gehrke; son-in-law, Robert Clifford Gehrke; brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, George Boschult, Carl, Harry and Alfred Petersen, Donald and Evelyn Flemming, August and Lucille Brie, Albert Sukstorf, William Kendrick, Joe Van Loan and Gertrude Werner.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to Esther Circle at Lutheran Memorial Church, Omaha or Bethpage, Line Center, 4980 118th St., Suite A, Omaha, NE, 68137-2221.

Campbell-Aman Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.