Virgil Peterson

Virgil Ray Peterson, 77, of Melbourne, formerly of rural Marshalltown, died suddenly on Wednesday, April 14th. Funeral services and a celebration of his life will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, April 18th, at the Mitchell Family Funeral Home with Pastor Gregg Davison of the Trinity Lutheran Church officiating. He will be laid to rest in the Montour Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 6-8:00 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home. The family appreciates flowers and memorials may be made to the Diabetes Foundation. For condolences, please visit www.mitchellfh.com. The Mitchell Family Funeral Home is caring for Virgil and his family. Ph 641-844-1234. Born on September 25th, 1932, near Gilman, he was the son of Thomas and Mildred (Medhus) Peterson. He attended elementary school in Montour and LeGrand and graduated from the Gilman High Schools Class of 1951. There he was an avid sportsman and an all-state basketball player. On April 5th, 1953, Easter Sunday, he was united in marriage to Darlene Kellogg. They farmed for many years in the Dunbar and Gilman areas until his retirement. In 1980, they moved to an acreage near Marshalltown and last year moved to Melbourne to be closer to their family. Virgil was a 4-H member and later became a longtime leader of the Dunbar Rustlers Club where he shared his love for livestock showing. He was involved in showing cattle and sheep for nearly 50 years. In 2005, he was inducted into the Central Iowa Fair Hall of Fame. He passionately loved spending time with his family, playing cards and sports (especially the ISU Cyclones!!!). Virgil will be dearly missed by Darlene, his loving wife of 57 years, his daughters: Darla Hoffman of State Center, Diane (Jay) Price of Gilman, Lisa Peterson of Lenexa, Kansas, son Pete (Lisa) Peterson of Rhodes, grandchildren- Mindy (Perry) Himes, Hayley (Kai) Kouba, Matt Price (fiance Blair), Holly (Tom) Zeuthen, Shelby Price, Paityn and Landrey Peterson, great-grandchildren: Drake Zeuthen, Claire and Cameron Kouba, his brothers Darrell (Chuckie) Peterson of Marshalltown, Ron (Sue) of Kansas City, sister Jean Marino of Des Moines, sister-in-law Jean Peterson of St. Peter, MN. his mother-in-law Norma Kellogg of Montour, several nieces, nephews, cousins, the Kellogg family and friends. Preceding him in death were his parents, brother Dale, father-in-law, two nephews and numerous good friends. Its not goodbye, but see you later, Dad.