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Family and friends have planned a Celebration of Life for Dawn Peters at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 23, at the Tipton-Haynes Historical Site, 2620 S. Roan St., Johnson City. Dawn died Jan. 8 after a short battle with cancer.
Dawn, who was a native Carter Countian, was born and raised in the Poga community. Many will remember her as Carter County’s historian, joining the ranks of local historians Robert Nave, Frank Merritt, and Dan Crowe, who in the past have explored and written about local history.
Dawn loved genealogy and enjoyed helping people trace their family roots. Both, she and her husband, Jackie, who is a Stoney Creek native, shared a passion for the preservation of Carter County history and the genealogy of the people.
Lisa Germaine, who had worked closely with Dawn researching local history and shared her love for local history, noted that Dawn and Jackie had traveled many miles to cemeteries – “there was probably not a cemetery in the country that she had not visited, as she helped families with researching their family roots.”
“She enjoyed researching family histories and uncovering unique stories that only could be found on grave markers and headstones in cemeteries. She was a storehouse of information on local history,” said Lisa.
One of her favorite projects was the restoration and maintenance of the historic Green Hill Cemetery located off W. Elk Avenue in Elizabethton. The cemetery is the final resting place for some of Elizabethton’s earliest settlers.
Peters and her husband as well as other volunteers worked tirelessly restoring broken tombstones, many of which had been pulled up and scattered across the cemetery.
It was just another step in a never-ending effort by Peters to set things right to fill in the gaps of history.
Dawn served as president of the Watauga Historical Association, which met at the Tipton-Haynes Historical Site after the group moved from Sycamore Shoals State Park. She had authored the book “Images of America: Carter County” and was co-author of the book “Carter County and Its People.”
She started a genealogy workshop at the Elizabethton-Carter County Library, which met monthly until COVID hit.
Dawn was the daughter of the late Linzy and Mary Jane Potter Trivette, and had been married to her husband 60 years.
In addition to her love of local history and genealogy, Dawn enjoyed photography, traveling, gardening, and collecting books and antiques.
Dawn was the mother of two children – Danny and his family, who live in Lexington, Ky., and Deanne Dale and her husband of Knoxville.
The public is invited to the Celebration of Life April 23.