Morris "Blaine" Blaine Peterson

To be elected, by the people, to represent them in the United States Congress is a note-worthy achievement. To be respected by all for your integrity and admired by your constituents for your grasp of a given problem and possible solutions and ramifications, is of paramount importance to the people of your state and the Nation you love.

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M. Blaine Peterson represented the people of Utah in three different capacities: a United State Congressmen , 1961-1962, Utah State Senator, 1975-1978 and Utah House of Representatives 1955-1956. He served in each office with a high degree of honor and efficiency.

Born in 1906 to Peter and Rachel Thomas Peterson, in Ogden, Utah, he grew up in a town still rough around the edges. A railroad town with several streets populated by hard-working, hard-drinking, sometimes unmanageable individuals. As a Prosecuting Attorney for the city of Ogden and Weber County, he helped bring more order and reason to Ogden. In that position he had to witness the execution of several men he had prosecuted. Because of this, life, liberty and the joy of living were never taken lightly.

He moved his family and law practice to Monticello, Utah in the mid 1950's for several years to handle uranium claims in that area. In so doing he gained a great deal of understanding about the state of Utah as a whole; its' people natural resources, diversified beauty, strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge helped him better serve his state and its' people in the State Legislature and United States Congress.

Graduating from the Ogden public schools, the University of utah and Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C., made him well qualified to hold one of the highest offices the United States of America has to offer. Good parents, a strong sense of God and Country and a never wavering understanding of right and wrong made him a great statesman.

Blaine served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Leipzig, Germany for 2 1/2 years as a young man and then returned, with his wife, Lucile Parry Peterson at his side, as President of the South-German Mission for three years from 1970-1973. His law office in Ogden included two other practicing attorneys, treasured friends, Glen Adams and Lew Wallace, a long lasting partnership, "home base."

Blaine and his sweetheart, Lucile were married 18 May 1932 in the Salt Lake Temple and are the parents of two sons and two daughters. His family always came first. They loved doing things together: skiing, swimming, picnics in the canyons, yearly family vacations at "40 Pines", their cabin near Yellowstone National Park. They genuinely enjoyed each other and their times together.

As one to always keep things in perspective, his children remember him saying, "Don't take yourself too damn seriously". Family, friendships, work and love of God and country were important to Blaine and he gave unceasingly of himself to help others, never being concerned about who would receive the honors, the money or the fame. After his death his wife had the task of clearing out his office and personal papers. "No wonder we never had much money," Lucile told her children, "Dad helped more people that couldn't pay than people who could."

He has left a great legacy of service by serving all.

He leaves his wife, Mary Lucile Parry Peterson and children, Richard Blaine Peterson, M.D. and wife, Joan, Julia Rae Peterson Keith and husband, Bill , Thomas Parry Peterson and wife, Frances and Marylu Peterson Johnson and husband, Van.