Jack Lee Petersen, age 81, peacefully passed away on Saturday, August 20, 2022 at Aurora Medical Center in Kenosha, surrounded by his loving family. Born on July 12, 1941 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he was a lifelong resident of the city.\u00a0 His parents were William S. and Valiere M. (Anderson) Petersen.\u00a0 He attended local schools and graduated from Bradford High School in 1959.<\/p>\n
Jack began working at the age of 10, helping his dad with deliveries for Home Juice.\u00a0 He continued to work part time for the company until he graduated high school and became a full-time employee. In 1966 he opened Petersen\u2019s Delicatessen, which quickly became a staple in the neighborhood.\u00a0 In 1977 Jack began to work for Dearborn Wholesale, Chicago, as a Customer Sales Consultant. He enjoyed the new career so much, that he sold his store in 1980.\u00a0 In 2004, Jack began working for Holiday Wholesale, Inc. as a Marketing and Sales Consultant, where he continued to work up until his death.<\/p>\n
Over his lifetime, Jack\u2019s memberships included The Swedish Glee Club, The Elks and Moose Clubs.\u00a0 He was the founder of the Dixie Golf League which included 20 of his closest friends.\u00a0 They traveled throughout Wisconsin and Illinois every Saturday, creating many fond memories.<\/p>\n
Jack loved to play racquetball, bowl and golf, but his greatest love was his wife of 62 years, Mary (Hall) Petersen.<\/p>\n
Jack met Mary at a local dance at Southport Beach House at age 15.\u00a0 Dance became a big part of their lives, having won two televised dance contests in Chicago.\u00a0 They married in October, 1959 and had one daughter, Jacqueline, who was the apple of his eye and truly defined \u201cDaddy\u2019s girl\u201d.\u00a0 They welcomed their son-in-law, Brett DeRousse into their family in 2000 and he quickly became the son they never had.\u00a0 Jack also has two grandsons, Jack and Owen DeRousse who were his everything.\u00a0 He was incredibly proud of them, as anyone who knew him would attest, often bragging about them the way a proud Papa would.\u00a0 He loved all five members of his family beyond measure and would do anything for them.<\/p>\n
As a family they loved to travel and spend time in their second home in Florida. \u00a0His favorite trips were to all of the Hawaiian islands, including the private island of Ni\u2019ihau, yet his favorite island was Kauai.\u00a0 He also greatly enjoyed his trips to Bali, Dubai, the Caribbean, many European countries and South Africa.<\/p>\n
Jack was preceded in death by his parents and his younger brother and best friend, Gary. Jack also had two loving and wonderful big sisters, Dr. Constance Knop and Carol Mosey whom he loved dearly.\u00a0 He is also survived by his devoted wife, loving daughter and son-in-law, precious grandsons, and numerous nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n
Jack was well known throughout the community for his bigger than life personality.\u00a0 Many knew him as \u201cThe King\u201d and he often was mistaken for Bob Uecker.\u00a0 What most people will remember him for is his outstanding work ethic and his love and devotion to his family.<\/p>\n
Jack wanted everyone to celebrate his life and not mourn, so he asked that you wear fun\/bright clothes and be ready to share fellowship with friends and family.<\/p>\n
Memorial services honoring Jack\u2019s life will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, August 26, 2022 at the Piasecki Funeral Home 3720 39th Avenue.<\/p>\n
A gathering of relatives and friends will be held on Friday, August 26, 2022 from 3:00 p.m. until the time of the service at the funeral home.<\/p>\n
In lieu of flowers, Jack\u2019s wishes were for donations to his grandson\u2019s college education or to his mother\u2019s scholarship.\u00a0 For donations to his grandson\u2019s, please send to Mary Petersen c\/o Piasecki Funeral Home 3720 39th<\/sup> Avenue, Kenosha, WI 53144, all donations will be forwarded to the family. For his mother\u2019s scholarship, please send to the Valiere Anderson Petersen scholarship- Kenosha Bradford High School \u00a0KBHSAA, P.O. Box 56, Kenosha, WI 53141.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jack Lee Petersen, age 81, peacefully passed away on Saturday, August 20, 2022 at Aurora Medical Center in Kenosha, surrounded by his loving family. Born on July 12, 1941 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he was a lifelong resident of the city.\u00a0 His parents were William S.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":11750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"service-location":[],"class_list":["post-11749","obituary","type-obituary","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/obituary\/11749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/obituary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/obituary"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"service-location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/service-location?post=11749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}