[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 41 (Monday, March 9, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING ARIZONA PIONEER AND NATIONAL TREASURE MS. CELE PETERSON

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                         HON. RAUL M. GRIJALVA

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 9, 2009

  Mr. GRIJALVA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a Tucson, Arizona 
icon, a state of Arizona pioneer and a national treasure--Ms. Cele 
Peterson. Cele Peterson, a visionary and an activist, will turn 100 on 
March 14, 2009 and she is still busy as a catalyst for business, 
cultural, environmental, and children's organizations in Tucson, 
Arizona. She grew up in the wildest days of Bisbee, a little mining 
town in Arizona close to the border with Mexico. She tells stories 
about watching skirmishes of the Mexican Revolution from high on the 
hills across the valley, sitting at the knee of an old ``mule skinner'' 
listening to tales of the West, and of her brother dynamiting their 
backyard to build a garden for their mother. Cele maintains that her 
strength and persistence is due to the 365 steps she climbed up and 
down the steep hills of Bisbee to and from school every day.
  At fifteen, she graduated from high school and began attending the 
University of Arizona. She went on to Sullins College in Bristol, 
Virginia and George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Cele 
worked at the Library of Congress in the manuscript division in the 
late 1920's. She was sent to Mexico City where she continued her work 
of translating old Spanish manuscripts pertaining to the history of the 
Southwest.
  In 1931, when Cele opened a dress shop in Tucson, she began a career 
that integrated her love of history, creativity as a designer, business 
acumen and intelligence with her values and desires to improve the 
community. Today, Cele will still tell you that her most important 
priority always was her love for her husband Tom and their five 
children. Her love today continues to be centered on her on children, 
her 14 grandchildren and her 10 great grandchildren.
  For the last 78 years, Cele Peterson Fashion's has grown and changed 
with the times, yet Cele claims she has never worked a day in her life. 
She loves what she does, and has adventures and honors that reflect her 
enthusiasm. In the 1940's she initiated a daily radio broadcast from 
her downtown store. In the 1950's she was selected as a young American 
designer to participate in the Merrimack fashion show at New York's 
Metropolitan Opera. Her denim tailored ``Station Wagon Togs'' drew 
international recognition. Her designs celebrated Arizona's special 
resources: copper, cotton, climate, and cattle.
  Along the way, Cele founded what is now known as the Tucson 
Children's Museum, was a co-founder of the Casa de Los Ninos, the first 
crisis nursery in the United States, and was very involved in the 
beginnings of the Arizona Theater Company and the Tucson Opera Company. 
She was the instigator of a non-profit organization that celebrates 
Tucson's Birthday and culture every August. Cele created the idea for 
Kids International Neighborhood, a non-profit organization that 
promotes cultural understanding, acceptance and respect among children 
of the world.
  Cele served on University of Arizona boards for the College of 
Humanities, the School of Architecture and the Steele Memorial 
Children's Research Foundation. She also served on the boards of the 
Tucson Trade Bureau, Tucson/Mexico Sister Cities, the Tucson Local 
Development Corporation, the Industrial Development Authority, the 
Tucson Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Tucson 
Symphony Orchestra, Angel Charity for Children, the Tucson Community 
Foundation and the Tucson Downtown Alliance.
  Over the years her achievements have been recognized and honored with 
numerous awards including: the City of Hope Woman of the Year Award, 
the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Founders Award, the 
University of Arizona College of Agriculture Distinguished Citizen 
Award, the YWCA's Lifetime Achievement Award and the Ernst & Young/INC. 
Magazine 1995 National Socially Responsible Entrepreneur of the Year 
Award. Cele was named a Dona de Los Descendientes del Presidio de 
Tucson, the group of women responsible for maintaining Tucson's 
historic culture. Cele received a Crystal Apple from the Metropolitan 
Education Commission and was honored as one of the Four Women Who 
Helped Build Tucson by the Concerned Media Professionals. In 2004, the 
America-Israel Friendship League honored her with a Cycle of Life 
Award. In the same year she was named Grand Marshal of the Tucson Rodeo 
Parade. In 2007 the Tucson Pima Public Library designated the Cele 
Peterson Arizona Collection, as an ongoing resource of local history.
  As of February 2009 Cele is working on a youth apprentice program for 
the Rodeo Parade Committee, actively recruiting additions for the Cele 
Peterson Collection at the library, and encouraging the exchange of 
cultural ideas for children through the distribution of I Love You in 
Many Languages, a Kids International Neighborhood book. Cele is also 
continuing her involvement with a coalition of environmental groups to 
restore and preserve native growth and wildflowers on a centrally 
located urban lot.
  Clearly Cele Peterson is committed to finding beauty, and changing 
the world. She often quotes her mother, ``Look into that field out 
there. You'll see whatever you want to see. You can see wildflowers and 
beauty or waste and junk.'' Cele has always made a clear decision to 
look for beauty. In the process, she became a community legend.

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