Falmouth - Dawn Eileen Gerhardt Peterson was born in November 1934 in Cape Girardeau, MO, the daughter of Joseph (Joe) and Agnes (nee Butler). The youngest of three sisters, she grew up in a close-knit family with many beloved aunts and uncles nearby.
Dawn’s artistic talent was spotted in high school, where she won the design competition for the new granite sign for the school, and she went on to have a successful career in fine art and graphic design. She studied with Samuel E Oppenheim at the Art Students League in New York and worked for several large advertising firms in St Louis and San Diego in her early career, often as the only woman on staff. She later worked for New England Publications and DownEast Magazine in Maine. In her later years, Dawn became a children’s book illustrator, with a focus on books about Maine and featuring anthropomorphic animals, which became her specialty. She was best known for The Orphan Seal, which won the Henry Bergh Children's Book Award from the ASPCA, Mabel Takes the Ferry (and other books in the Mabel series), as well as Miss Renee’s Mice and the sequel, Miss Renee’s Mice go to an Exhibition, on which she collaborated with her dear friend Elizabeth Hoffman. Dawn also illustrated Dorothea Johnson’s Children's Tea & Etiquette: Brewing Good Manners in Young Minds, and the internationally-noted Martha to the Rescue, a true story about saving Valerie the famous chicken. She is featured in The Great State of Illustration in Maine exhibition currently running at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk.
A keen traveler, Dawn undertook an extensive tour of Europe in the early 1960s (including sailing on the final crossing of the Liberté) and drove her MG TD solo across the country in the 1950s. She once fixed the MG’s fuel pump plugs with her nail file on the side of the freeway, much to the bemusement of the California Highway Patrol!
Following her 15-year marriage to Ed Peterson (who wooed her by having a cane wrapped in roses delivered when she’d missed their date after spraining her ankle) in the early 1960s, Dawn lived in New York and then Los Angeles. She moved to Maine in the late 1970s, and called Camden and then Falmouth home for the rest of her life. Dawn loved Maine, and many will remember her for her amazing skills as a cook, baker and gardener. She was also known for her deep kindness, having been described by her friend Elizabeth as a natural Buddha.
Dawn is survived by her daughter Heather Whittier (and husband Tim), daughter Holly Peterson (and her partner Tim), and Heather’s children Bea Curtis, Molly Curtis, Emma Hogan and Sophia Democracy, as well as her great-granddaughter Ryleigh. She is predeceased by her beloved sisters (the ‘crazy old aunties’) Linnet Dean and Joan Gerhardt, as well as her much-missed grandson Sam Curtis.
Burial will be private.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Chad E. Poitras Cremation and Funeral Service, Buxton, www.mainefuneral.com