Lyle Allen Petersen

Lyle Allen Petersen passed away on September 1, 2023, at Mary Lanning Hospital following a brief illness. He was 89 years old.  Service will be Thursday, September 7, 2023, 10:30 a.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Blue Hill, Nebraska with Pastor Leah Krotz officiating.  Burial will be in the Blue Hill Cemetery.  Visitation will be Wednesday, September 6, 2023 from 9:00am-8pm with family present from 5-7pm at Merten-Butler Mortuary, Blue Hill, Nebraska.  A memorial has been established to be designated at a later date.  The service will be live streamed on Merten-Butler Mortuary’s website.  To view the service, go to Lyle’s obituary and click on the play button towards the bottom of the page.  Condolences may be sent to the family at www.mertenbutlermortuary.com.  Merten-Butler Mortuary, Blue Hill, Nebraska is in charge of arrangements.  Family and friends are welcome to stay for a luncheon at the church.

Lyle was born March 31, 1934, at the family home near Ruskin, Nebraska to Anker and Lydia Petersen. He was the 5th of 7 children. His father was a farmer. He graduated from Ruskin high school in 1952 where he had participated in music, basketball and football. After high school, he worked a variety of jobs until enlisting in the service. He and 5 friends from Ruskin enlisted in the Navy together. Lyle served from 1956-57 as an electrician’s mate spending time on the USS Currituck in the Mediterranean.

Lyle graduated from Fairbury Junior College in 1960 where he studied to be a teacher of industrial arts. He met his first wife, Charlotte Meyer, there and they were married on May 22, 1960 in Plymouth, Nebraska. They moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where Lyle worked with his brother, Ellis, as co-owner of Petersen Drywall. He and Charlotte had one son, Joel Allen. In 1974, the family moved to Blue Hill, Nebraska to farm and be closer to Charlotte’s family. Lyle continued the drywall business and worked alongside Joel for 5 years after he graduated from high school. After Charlotte’s illness and death in September of 1989, Lyle sold the farm, moved into Blue Hill and continued working in construction.

Lyle was introduced by mutual friends to Beverly Blair. They were married on March 7th, 1992. Lyle had started working with Mission Builders, a Lutheran church building organization, prior to their marriage. They continued this work together for many years, building 18 churches all around the country and living in their RV for months at a time. He was the project manager for many of those sites and they enjoyed this work and the people they met very much.

Lyle never wanted to retire and continued to work in construction until his death. He worked in most homes within a 20 mile radius of Blue Hill. Throughout his years, he served God in many ways in the church-teaching Sunday school, sharing his beautiful voice singing solos or in choir, and as an officer or church council member, to name a few. He was loved and admired for his kind and gentle spirit.

He was preceded in death by his parents Anker and Lydia; his wife, Charlotte; Charlotte’s parents, Arnold and Esther Meyer; brothers and sister-in-law; Myron “Ellis” Petersen and Hartley (Jane) Petersen; sisters and brother-in-law, Eunice (Reid) Neve and Marietta Stenson; brother-in-law, Duane Lubkeman; brothers- and sister-in-law Gerald Meyer, Jim (Gladys) Meyer; and step son, Michael Blair.

Survivors include his wife, Beverly, of Blue Hill, NE; son Joel (Janet) Petersen of Rapid City, SD; grandchildren Eric (Jenna) Petersen and their children Maren and August of Seattle, WA; Brett Petersen and Melissa Petersen of Rapid City, SD; sisters Jeanette Lubkeman of Ankeny, IA and Marilyn (Marvin) Meyer of Omaha, NE; sister-in-law, Bonita Bakker, Madison, WI; brothers- and sisters-in-law Dale (Arlene) Meyer of Beatrice, NE, Fred (Deb) Meyer Of Bellevue, NE; also Beverly’s son, Mark Blair and his children Nika, Isabella, and Emily of Estero, FL; daughter-in-law, Michelle Blair and her children Lindsey Blair, Brian Blair and his son, Bentley of Orlando, FL.

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