GRACE (GAWTHROP) PETERSON -Grace Gawthrop was born in Dysart, Tama County, Iowa, March 2, 1902. Parents — Charles C. Gawthrop (1869-1954) and Josephine Holgate Gawthrop (1872-1955). They moved to LaPlata. Missouri when Gracie was still very young. The family moved to Warren County when she was about four. Gracie’s introduction to music came on the family’s old pump organ. She could play by ear, remembering how her two older sisters worked the pedals while she played. She attended country school and church in the Fairview Center area.
The family moved to Monmouth, where she attended Garfield Grade School, and Monmouth High School, and took a job playing for silent movies at a theater in Monmouth. She began her formal music education at the Monmouth College Conservatory of Music in 1917. In 1920, still a student, her teacher-mentor, Miss Edna B. Riggs, suggested she start teaching piano. Every Saturday was spent teaching scales and simple melodies to children not much younger than herself.
In 1921, she started teaching at Monmouth College. That relationship spanned three generations. In 1922, she received her degree in piano; two years later a degree in voice.
Gracie married Harold Peterson, (1896- 1962) Monmouth, on December 25, 1925. Soon after their marriage, they started Peterson’s Appliance on West First Avenue in Monmouth. During the 1920s, Gracie and her sister, Alice, began performing as the “Gawthrop Sisters,” traveling around the Midwest. In the 1940s and 50s, she sponsored the college’s Glee Club and organized revues at the Rivoli Theatre in Monmouth. In 1968 she spent 34 days in Europe; the next year Africa, China twice, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Hawaii, and countries in South America. She developed travelogues and programs about her favorite musicians; Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin and Victor Herbert. In 1971, she retired from Monmouth College; but the relationship continued as a close one. The front lobby of Wells Theatre bears the title “Gracie Peterson Plaza.” She has an archive room of photos and memorabilia that is in Hewes Library at the college. Since 1973 she has been playing piano at Meling’s Res- taurant, and has played for Monmouth Rotary since 1922.
She is the first woman members of the Ro- tary. In 1996 she was put in the Guiness Book of Records as the oldest musician still playing professionally. Gracie, now 100 years plus, is still playing at Meling’s. She played a concert at the Orphuem Theatre in Galesburg. Illinois to celebrate her 100th birthday; plus she had three other large celebrations, one at Meling’s, one at the American Legion, one at the college given by the Crimson Clan. She still lives alone and doesn’t know what medicine is: she doesn’t take any.
Source: Warren County, IL Histories and Families, page 11