Off the playing field, 2001 Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductee Leona A. Peterson was always identified\u00a0 by her\u00a0 energetic smile, her friendly personality, and her clever wit.\u00a0 Once her attention turned to athletics, opponents witnessed a determined team player, a passionate leader, and an outstanding role model.<\/p>\n
The daughter of Alice Taylor and Arnold Peterson, Leona was born on December 31, 1931 and grew up in the Short Beach section of town. As a member of the Branford High School class of 1949, she was actively involved\u00a0 in athletics and other school\u00a0 activities.\u00a0\u00a0 Leona was a cheerleader, serving as captain her freshman and senior years, captain of the field hockey team , a member of the Girl\u2019s Athletic Association, serving as treasurer and secretary,\u00a0 and played intramural sports throughout high school.<\/p>\n
During her junior year, Leona\u00a0 was a member of the girls\u2019 field hockey team , which at the time was comparatively new.\u00a0 In her senior season, Branford, in its lone game of the year, defeated Guilford by the final score of\u00a0 3-0.\u00a0 In that game, Leona scored one of the team\u2019s goals.\u00a0\u00a0 As part\u00a0 of the Hornets hoop squad,\u00a0 \u201cPete\u201d, as she was nicknamed in high school,\u00a0 played on an undefeated team in 1948-49.\u00a0 In six games, Leona was high scorer\u00a0 in two of\u00a0 them , netting\u00a0 eight points in a win versus Guilford and six points versus St. Mary\u2019s. Tonight\u2019s inductee played with fellow Hall of Fame inductee, Joan Austin Perrotti (\u201900) and for head coach, Virginia Moessmang (\u201990).<\/p>\n
Leona was also a member of the Glee Club, the \u201cHornet\u201d newspaper, the class book committee, the prom committee, and was class social chairman. She\u00a0 was also known for\u00a0 writing the lyrics to the Branford High School Victory Song and during her senior year, she was voted by her classmates as \u201cBest All-Around\u201d, \u201cMost Popular\u201d, \u201cBest Dancer\u201d, \u201cMost Sociable\u201d, and \u201cMost Athletic\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cPete\u201d was the recipient of the Second Annual Sweater Award for sportsmanship and\u00a0 leadership in athletics.<\/p>\n
Following graduation from Branford High School,\u00a0 tonight\u2019s inductee attended Southern Connecticut State University and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree. She was a reporter\u00a0 at the New Haven Register from 1956 to 1981, covering Branford, Madison and other East Shore towns.\u00a0 After her retirement from the journalism industry, she was a freelance graphic artist and calligrapher.\u00a0 Her other interests ranged from music to reading and travelling.<\/p>\n
Throughout her adulthood, Leona was a major force in the peace, civil rights\u00a0 and women movements.\u00a0 She was a founder of the Women in Media and the New Haven Women\u2019s Political Caucus and was a member of the Women\u2019s Liberation and NOW.\u00a0 Leona later was active in the town with public access television.\u00a0 She served on the Board of Directors at Citizens Television (CTV) in New Haven,\u00a0\u00a0 produced the show \u201cSwitching Channels\u201d for five years, and served as a board member at Branford Community Television (BCTV), where she was chairperson of the Programming Committee.<\/p>\n
Sadly, Leona passed away on April 16,2000 at the age of 68, leaving two brothers, Arnold and Chris Peterson of Branford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":723,"template":"","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee\/722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/inductee"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}