Myrtle D. Peters

Myrtle Peters, 102, went home to be with her Lord on Wednesday, October 27, at Jordan?s Nursing Home in Bridgman, during a total lunar eclipse. A Celebration of Life Service will be held 3:00 PM, Sunday, October 31, 2004, at Kerley-Starks & Menchinger Family Funeral Home 2650 Niles Rd., St. Joseph with Rev. Richard Sing officiating. Friends may call from 1:00-3:00 P.M. at the funeral home. Friends and family are invited for food and fellowship after the service, at Twelve Corners Community Church. Cremation and a private family interment will take place at a later date. Memorials may be made to Twelve Corners Community Church, 3902 Hicks Avenue, Benton Harbor. Those wishing to share a memory or sign the guest book online may do so at www.starks-menchinger.com Myrtle was born April 21, 1902, in Fredonia, New York to Charles and Minnie (Gast) Douglas. She was a 1925 graduate of Hillsdale College. After graduation she was a field worker for the Rochester Girls Home, Rochester, NY for six months until transferring to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, where she worked half days for the Cleveland Associated Charities while studying for her Masters Degree at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduation, she was a Field Worker and Placement Director for the Cleveland Charities in Parma, Ohio from 1927 ? 1928. On November 10, 1928 Myrtle married Henry Peters, a progressive young farmer of the Twelve Corners Area. They sold their fruit farm on Kerlikowske Road in 1964 and it is the present home of the Lake Michigan Hills Golf Club. Myrtle and Henry were very active in the Twelve Corners Community Church, where they both taught Sunday school for 35 years. Myrtle had been a church, Literary and Aid Society, and Ladies Circle member there for 75 years. Myrtle established the P.T.A. at the local elementary school, Stanley School, and was their president from 1937 to 1942. She also started their hot lunch program, the Girl Scout and Boy Scout programs, and was a Girl Scout leader. Her other memberships included the Berrien County Farm Bureau, the Twin City Federation of Women?s Clubs, the Daughters of Ossoli, the Retired For Fun Club, the Sunday Evening Club, and the Berrien County Farm Bureau Citizens Committee for Farm Bureau Youth from 1967-1969. Henry and Myrtle enjoyed twenty-three happy winters in Englewood, Florida with Henry?s sister Mabel, and her husband Herman Reimers. She also enjoyed many happy times with her very dear friend Marietta while attending Camera Club for 14 years and plays at Twin Cities Players for 5 years, and especially eating out afterwards. Myrtle leaves behind many friends and family from her very active life at the church and in the community. She will be dearly missed. She was a loving and caring wife, mother and grandmother. She was also very kind and giving and always willing to offer a helping hand. She dearly loved her family, friends, and caregivers. Her nurses aide, Dollie Heaton was Myrtle?s special friend. Myrtle enjoyed life and loved to laugh. They called Myrtle ?The Entertainment Queen? at Jordon?s because she always kept them laughing. She was always looking out for others, even at the end. Survivors include a son ? Douglas (Betty) Peters of Fish Lake, Ind., daughter ? Joyce (Paul) Richards of Bridgman; six grandchildren ? Cherie (Hollis) Benson, Marla (Joel) Mashke, Sheila (Robert) Hamlett, Amanda (Patrick) Kindig, Michael (Ruth) Richards, and Kathy (Jeffery) Wilson; thirteen Great-grandchildren ? Donald Wilson, Kim (Agnais) and Mark Abellana, Louise (Frank) Trandicosta, Amie (Toby) Meints, Tamara (Joseph) Gabb, Hollis (Christina) Benson, Jessica (Brian) Lewis, and Christopher Hamlett, Bethany and Daniel Mashke, Patrick and Jacqueline Kindig; five great-great-grandchildren ? Joseph and Erin Gabb, Morgan Meints, Michael Trandicosta, Alexander Benson; a sister in law ? Alice Spencer; and a very special friend ? Marietta Schaus. Myrtle was preceded in death by her loving husband Henry in 1984; her parents ? Charles and Minnie Douglas; her two brothers ? Raymond and Nelson Douglas; sister Marjorie Kent; grandson Wade Peters; and her very dear friend Fred Bork.