Post by the Scribe on Nov 28, 2011 17:19:56 GMT -5
Tucson's "First lady of fashion" Cele Peterson talks about her incredible life just before her 100th birthday. Cele died 05/06/10 at the age of 101.
Tucson's first lady of fashion, charity turns 100
by Associated Press (March 14th, 2009 @ 8:37am) TUCSON, Ariz.
(AP) - Back in the early 1930s, when Cele Peterson opened her first clothing store in Tucson, she made a buying trip to New York. She brought along a friend to help her drive across the country.
Actually, two friends.
``I had a little gun on me because, after all, we were driving to New York,'' Peterson says.
Since it was illegal to carry a firearm in New York and she didn't dare leave it in the hotel, Peterson had to think. ``I put it in my muff and thought, 'Nobody knows I've got it,''' she recalls.
``We were at this one showroom and this guy said to me, 'you're from the wild West.' And I said, 'Sure.' He said, 'Do you carry a gun?' I said, 'Of course. Who doesn't?' And I opened my muff.
``Well I want you to know I got the best service from that company from then on out.''
On Saturday, Tucson's grande dame of fashion and style turns 100 years old. She's sharp as a tack, with barbed opinions, and still puts in time at her business. Her childhood memories sound like they sprang from the pages of a Western novel.
Through field glasses she watched puffs of rifle smoke from the Mexican Revolution across the border in Naco. She put a dead rattler in a candy box on Valentine's Day and gave it to her chemistry teacher, who promptly fainted when he opened the box.
Today the mischievous girl might have ended up in reform school. Instead she became a pioneer businesswoman and one of the most important philanthropists this city has yet created.
Sitting at the desk in her clothing store at the Crossroads Festival shopping center, Peterson recalled the events that led up to her move to Tucson.
Born Cecilia Fruitman in Pensacola, Fla., her family moved first to Tennessee, later to California and then to Bisbee when she was around 3 years old.
After graduating from high school in Bisbee, Peterson attended the University of Arizona for a year. She was 15 at the time - a source of great worry to her mother because college age boys, not knowing her real age, were asking her out. After that she headed east to study at an all-girls school. She hated it and quickly enrolled instead at nearby George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she met her future husband, Tom Peterson.
In 1931, with a pair of women from Tucson, she opened her first store downtown called The Coed Shop. That name stuck until she changed it to Cele Peterson's a few years later.
``'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,''' she said of the risky decision. ``I never thought that I was getting into something that I couldn't handle.''
Peterson hit upon an idea that set her business apart - to market not what people could afford to buy but what they wanted to buy. She sized up her market and her customers and set about making a name for herself.
One of her customers was her friend Ruth Mary Ronstadt, mother of singer Linda Ronstadt. Linda is Peterson's goddaughter.
``One of my earliest memories is going with my mother to Cele Peterson's dress shop, probably around 1950,'' Linda Ronstadt says. ``Cele knew her clients well. She knew what social functions they would attend and what their budgets would allow.
``She also was a talented designer. She designed clothes that were both stylish and practical for this hot climate and slightly more relaxed atmosphere,'' Ronstadt said. ``She called it her Station Wagon line and I can remember items my mother wore year after year.''
In 1934 Peterson married Texas-born Thomas Peterson, an insurance man who died in 1989. Tom kept an eye on the financial details of her business, leaving her to make the creative side work. Together they had five children.
The business grew and expanded with the town. Her business took her around the world on buying trips and fashion shows. But Tucson was always home.
``I think we have a big battle in Tucson today,'' says Peterson, who has lent her resources to numerous local charities. ``I think we're battling between keeping it a unique community as opposed to a metropolis. We're not trying to be a Phoenix, and yet the developers are trying to make us into a Phoenix.''
As she tickles the 100-year mark, Peterson is still an elegant presence in Tucson.
``Fashion is a way of life,'' she says. ``It doesn't have to be in clothes. It's in trends, in houses. It's in your eyeglasses. It's in whatever you do ... And I still say life is what we want it to be.''
You will notice Ronstadts galore including a cameo of Linda as well as Congresswoman Gabby Giffords before the rightist assassin gunned her down not far from this location in Tucson.
Tucson's first lady of fashion, charity turns 100
by Associated Press (March 14th, 2009 @ 8:37am) TUCSON, Ariz.
(AP) - Back in the early 1930s, when Cele Peterson opened her first clothing store in Tucson, she made a buying trip to New York. She brought along a friend to help her drive across the country.
Actually, two friends.
``I had a little gun on me because, after all, we were driving to New York,'' Peterson says.
Since it was illegal to carry a firearm in New York and she didn't dare leave it in the hotel, Peterson had to think. ``I put it in my muff and thought, 'Nobody knows I've got it,''' she recalls.
``We were at this one showroom and this guy said to me, 'you're from the wild West.' And I said, 'Sure.' He said, 'Do you carry a gun?' I said, 'Of course. Who doesn't?' And I opened my muff.
``Well I want you to know I got the best service from that company from then on out.''
On Saturday, Tucson's grande dame of fashion and style turns 100 years old. She's sharp as a tack, with barbed opinions, and still puts in time at her business. Her childhood memories sound like they sprang from the pages of a Western novel.
Through field glasses she watched puffs of rifle smoke from the Mexican Revolution across the border in Naco. She put a dead rattler in a candy box on Valentine's Day and gave it to her chemistry teacher, who promptly fainted when he opened the box.
Today the mischievous girl might have ended up in reform school. Instead she became a pioneer businesswoman and one of the most important philanthropists this city has yet created.
Sitting at the desk in her clothing store at the Crossroads Festival shopping center, Peterson recalled the events that led up to her move to Tucson.
Born Cecilia Fruitman in Pensacola, Fla., her family moved first to Tennessee, later to California and then to Bisbee when she was around 3 years old.
After graduating from high school in Bisbee, Peterson attended the University of Arizona for a year. She was 15 at the time - a source of great worry to her mother because college age boys, not knowing her real age, were asking her out. After that she headed east to study at an all-girls school. She hated it and quickly enrolled instead at nearby George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she met her future husband, Tom Peterson.
In 1931, with a pair of women from Tucson, she opened her first store downtown called The Coed Shop. That name stuck until she changed it to Cele Peterson's a few years later.
``'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,''' she said of the risky decision. ``I never thought that I was getting into something that I couldn't handle.''
Peterson hit upon an idea that set her business apart - to market not what people could afford to buy but what they wanted to buy. She sized up her market and her customers and set about making a name for herself.
One of her customers was her friend Ruth Mary Ronstadt, mother of singer Linda Ronstadt. Linda is Peterson's goddaughter.
``One of my earliest memories is going with my mother to Cele Peterson's dress shop, probably around 1950,'' Linda Ronstadt says. ``Cele knew her clients well. She knew what social functions they would attend and what their budgets would allow.
``She also was a talented designer. She designed clothes that were both stylish and practical for this hot climate and slightly more relaxed atmosphere,'' Ronstadt said. ``She called it her Station Wagon line and I can remember items my mother wore year after year.''
In 1934 Peterson married Texas-born Thomas Peterson, an insurance man who died in 1989. Tom kept an eye on the financial details of her business, leaving her to make the creative side work. Together they had five children.
The business grew and expanded with the town. Her business took her around the world on buying trips and fashion shows. But Tucson was always home.
``I think we have a big battle in Tucson today,'' says Peterson, who has lent her resources to numerous local charities. ``I think we're battling between keeping it a unique community as opposed to a metropolis. We're not trying to be a Phoenix, and yet the developers are trying to make us into a Phoenix.''
As she tickles the 100-year mark, Peterson is still an elegant presence in Tucson.
``Fashion is a way of life,'' she says. ``It doesn't have to be in clothes. It's in trends, in houses. It's in your eyeglasses. It's in whatever you do ... And I still say life is what we want it to be.''
You will notice Ronstadts galore including a cameo of Linda as well as Congresswoman Gabby Giffords before the rightist assassin gunned her down not far from this location in Tucson.