The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Beatrice Brown-Peterson

Beatrice (Brown) Peterson (18 May 1942 – 4 February 2020) was a prominent African American civic organizer, educational paraprofessional, and civil rights leader in Avon Park.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020] Over more than three decades in public education and community activism, she founded municipal commemorative traditions, mobilized voter participation, and preserved the institutional memory of the town’s Black community.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020]

Early Life and Family

Beatrice Brown was born in Avon Park on 18 May 1942 to Elmo Brown and Myrtle Lee (Dismuke) Brown.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020] She was raised in the town’s historic African American Southside community and remained an Avon Park resident throughout her entire life.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020] Her family included brothers Bishop Thomas J. Brown, Jimmie Brown, Harold Brown, Enoch Brown, Kelly Brown, and Ulyesses Brown, and sister Susan Brown.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020]

She married Cueller Phillip Peterson Jr., who was celebrated in local tradition as the first African American child born in Avon Park, the son of pioneer settlers Cueller Peterson Sr. and Sarah Peterson of 904 South Pineland Avenue.[maxwell-1976][obit-beatrice-peterson-2020] On 14 December 1981, Beatrice and her husband executed a warranty deed conveying the ancestral Peterson homestead on South Pineland Avenue to Cueller Jr.’s sister, Christophine Peterson Blackmon.[or-709-905-peterson-blackmon-1981]

Career and Civic Leadership

Peterson dedicated thirty years of service to the Highlands County School System as an educational paraprofessional, supporting classroom teachers and mentoring generations of local students.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020]

Beyond her career in public education, Peterson was a driving force in Avon Park’s civic and political life.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020] She founded the annual Avon Park Martin Luther King Jr. Walk, establishing an enduring community commemoration honoring the civil rights leader.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020] She served as an active leader in the Highlands County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Voter’s Registration League, the United Negro Women’s Council, the Highlands County Democratic Association, the Community Awareness Association, and the E. O. Douglas Alumni Association.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020] Within her religious community, she was a dedicated congregant of the Faith Pentecostal House of God on West Hal McRae Boulevard and served as the principal organizer of the annual “Pack the Pew” interfaith gatherings.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020]

Death and Commemoration

Beatrice Brown-Peterson passed away in Avon Park on 4 February 2020 at age seventy-seven.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020] Following funeral services at the Faith Pentecostal House of God, she was interred in Lakeside Historical Cemetery.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020]

In February 2025, the Avon Park Depot Museum formally recognized Peterson’s contributions to civic life by honoring her in its permanent African American history exhibition.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020][hns-2025-03-10] She was selected as one of eight central honorees alongside her brother Bishop Thomas J. Brown, civic leaders Fred and Wilma Conner, Mayor Robert Britt, and her husband Cuellar Peterson.[obit-beatrice-peterson-2020]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
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society

Sources

  1. Fountain Funeral Home, Beatrice (Brown) Peterson Obituary, Fountain Funeral Home, Avon Park, 4 February 2020 (2020) · secondary
  2. Highlands County Clerk of Court, Warranty Deed from Cuellar P. Peterson, Jr. and Beatrice Peterson to Christophine Blackmon, 14 December 1981 (Highlands County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Official Records Book 709, Page 905) (1981) · official
  3. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (Held at the Avon Park Historical Society Depot Museum, Avon Park, Florida) (1976) · book
  4. Highlands News-Sun, Duke Energy funds African-American Cemetery restoration, Highlands News-Sun, 10 March 2025 (2025) · newspaper

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