Katie JoAnne Peterson passed away Saturday, April 26, 2025, in her mother’s home in Lusk, Wyoming. Funeral services will be held on Friday, May 9, 2025, at 1 p.m. at Prairie Hills Community Center in Lusk, Wyoming. Inurnment will follow in the Lusk Cemetery
Katie was born June 6, 1978, in Torrington, joining her loving family, Steve and Jeanne Peterson, and sister, Rosemary Peterson. She was active in 4-H during her elementary and early high school years. Her picture graced the cover of the Wyoming Woolgrowers Magazine when she was three years old, embracing her lamb, Pet. She loved animals of almost every kind. Katie provided childcare in her home and loved each child she cared for as her own. She graduated from Niobrara County High School in 1997, loving art and assisting Jerry Walsh, a position she greatly enjoyed. She attended Laramie Community College in Cheyenne. The weight loss story was shared on NBC, inspiring many to seek treatment.
Katie was blessed with two children she deeply loved: Dmitri, who ranked with her dad as one of her favorite cowboys, and Elyse, the tender-hearted one who cared for others. Katie returned to live with her mother, Jeanne, last August. The house will be quiet in her absence.
She was preceded in death by her father, Steve Peterson of Lance Creek, her grandparents, Julius and Mary Peterson of Lance Creek and Norman and Doreen Hauge of Wheatland, Wyoming.
She is survived by her mother, Jeanne Peterson, of Lusk; her son, Dmitri Richards, of Lusk, and her daughter Elyse Richards, of Pierce, Colorado; and one sister, Rosemary Henry, of Harrison, Nebraska.
Pier Funeral Home in Lusk, Wyoming, is in charge of arrangements.
