We are heartbroken to share that we lost Tammy Jo Petersen (Freeman) to cancer on the morning of Sunday, August 16, 2026, around 9:10 a.m., after she spent her final night with her two favorite people: her loving husband, Thomas, and her cherished daughter, Courtney. The last month of her life was intimate, heartbreaking, exhausting, and oh so special: first in the hospital, and then back home at Lake Ponderosa, where she spent her final days looking out at the water she had loved since childhood, in the same room where she had spent countless hours creating beautiful quilts for so many people. At 67, Tammy was far too young to leave us. But the life she gave us was so full of love, kindness, spirit, and care, and there is so much of her to remember.

Tammy was born on May 6, 1959 (on her own mother's birthday) in Oskaloosa, Iowa, to Gary Freeman and Karen Davis (McMickle). Her paternal grandmother, Dorothy Groves (Tubbs), was a nurse and helped deliver her own granddaughter, beginning a close bond between Tammy and her grandma that would last throughout her life. Tammy was the oldest of three children and grew up alongside her two beloved younger brothers, Tom Freeman and Jeff Freeman. She remained close with them throughout their lives and was the kind of sister who always made room when they needed her.

That same steadiness carried into her friendships. Tammy held onto close friends through every chapter of her life, from cosmetology school and church to quilting and her cherished lake neighborhood. People trusted her because she listened without judgment, always remembered what they were going through, and genuinely wanted to help in any way she could. Having been through so many trials in her childhood and throughout her life made Tammy especially sensitive to what others were going through, and she wanted the people she loved to know they could always count on her.

Tammy's childhood took her to many different places and included its share of difficult change. She was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and spent her toddler years there before her family moved to Madison, Wisconsin. From first through third grade, she lived in Downey and El Segundo, California, where she loved roller skating with her best friend. The family later returned to Iowa, living in DeWitt, Iowa City, and then West Branch, where Tammy finally got the horse she had wished for birthday after birthday: an enormous horse named Lady, whom she adored. She spent her junior high years in Texas before eventually returning to Oskaloosa for her later high school years, where she graduated in 1977.

Through all of those moves, some of Tammy's happiest and most familiar memories came from being with her dad and brothers and spending time at Lake Ponderosa. In 1967, Tammy's grandmother built the tiny two-room log cabin that still sits at the heart of the family home today. Tammy's beloved dad Gary taught her to swim and water ski, and she spent many weekends there with her family. Amid the many changes and challenges of her childhood, the lake became a place where Tammy could always feel safe, settled, and at home. It remained a refuge for her throughout her life and, many years later, became her forever home.

And then there was art. Even as a child, Tammy was always making something. Always creating. Art became one of her favorite classes, and she kept her high school portfolio for most of her life. As she got older, that creativity showed up in all kinds of ways. Most notably, there was hair, and eventually, quilts...many, many quilts. After high school, Tammy attended cosmetology school and became a talented and beloved hairstylist, eventually working in several salons in Iowa City and later salons she ran out of her homes. She loved the creative side of the work, but she was just as gifted at listening to her clients tell their stories in her chair and making them feel cared for beyond just their hair. Tammy also had plenty of fun using herself as a creative canvas. Over the years, she wore her hair in so many different colors and styles, but many will remember her best for her signature bright red short hair. Later, she settled into the most perfect shade of gray, which somehow made her striking icy-blue eyes stand out even more than they already did.

It was during those years in Iowa City that Tammy met Thomas in 1984. They were introduced through a friend and had spoken a few times, but then lost touch for several weeks. As the story goes, Tammy "by chance" happened to be walking through the neighborhood "serendipitously" where she knew Thomas had recently moved when she looked up and saw him through the window, desperately trying to chase a bat out of his new apartment. In a move that was much bolder than was typical for gentle-natured Tammy, she walked right up to see if he needed help and, after an evening of talking for hours, neither of them really looked back. Thomas proposed later that year, on November 4, 1984, a date that was easy to remember thanks to the infamous Iowa-Wisconsin tie that day. They were married on May 4, 1985, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with a lovely reception that followed at Palisades-Kepler State Park.

Tammy and Thomas were a natural pair from the beginning. They genuinely loved being together and would go on to do nearly everything side-by-side for 42 years. Early on in their marriage, they bought their first home in Downey, Iowa, where Tammy opened a hair salon in their basement called Hairline Design Studio and built a loyal group of clients. At the same time, she worked alongside Thomas as they bravely decided to build Petersen's Printing Equipment Sales and Service. Tammy learned to do whatever the business needed, even if taxes and bookkeeping remained particular sources of misery and irritation, as she would readily tell anyone willing to listen.When it had to be done, she would regularly announce to the room that she was going to "the dungeon" (her office), and could not come out until she had finished. What happened in there was rarely the part of the business Tammy enjoyed, but her careful, persistent work was essential to everything she and Thomas built together.

During those years, Tammy and Thomas wanted very much to become parents. After nearly ten years of hoping for a child, they welcomed Courtney Lynn Petersen (Petersen-Rhead) on November 27,1995 (a whole month earlier than expected). For someone who had waited so long to become a mother, Tammy seemed immediately at home in the role. She read every baby "how to" book she could find, kept a detailed journal of Courtney's first five years, and poured herself into making sure her daughter felt happy, healthy, safe, and completely loved. She was known for always doing the same for Courtney's friends as well. She was endlessly proud of Courtney and encouraged her without pressuring her, with a gentleness and confidence that made Courtney grow up knowing, without question, that her mom loved her and supported her no matter what. When Courtney introduced Tammy to her now-wife, Kristi, Tammy welcomed her immediately as another daughter and found in her a kindred spirit– someone who shared her gentleness, compassion, and deep care for the people around her.

With Courtney's long-awaited arrival, Lake Ponderosa became an even bigger part of the family life Tammy and Thomas had been building together for more than a decade. In fact, Tammy had first brought Thomas to the lake shortly after they met, and he quickly fell deeply in love with it too. From then on, they escaped there whenever they could (sometimes with very little regard for whether Iowa weather made a weekend at the lake remotely sensible) and even spent their honeymoon there, imagining what it might be like to live there one day.

And before long, weekends definitely no longer felt like enough. When Courtney was a year and a half old, Tammy and Thomas bought the little cabin from Tammy's grandmother and moved to Lake Ponderosa permanently in 1997.

For the next several years, the three of them lived together in the tiny original cabin, spending hours and hours on the lake. So much so that Courtney even took her first steps on their new hard-earned ski boat, The Mariah, in 1996– one of Tammy's favorite lake memories. Tammy was known for her love of and knack for water skiing, and watching her out on the lake, it almost looked like she was flying.

In 2001, they built an addition that gave the family more room and gave Tammy much more creative and artistic space to make the house completely their own. Ever the artist, Tammy painted and repainted over the years, rearranged furniture, decorated, gardened beautifully, hung photographs everywhere, and filled Courtney's bedroom with hand-painted scenes from whatever Courtney loved at the time, including beautifully painted dolphins, intricate ocean scenes, colorful sunset murals, and the very first design when Courtney was six years old- 101 Dalmatians (Courtney had asked her to paint dogs and dog houses all over her walls and Tammy, as always, delivered). Tammy could make a space beautiful whether she had a lot to work with or very little, and she was never afraid of bright color or an inspirational quote on a wall. Ever.

Tammy made her home a place where people could land, especially when they needed comfort, care, or simply somewhere to be. That little cabin-turned-wonderful-home became a gathering place for their extended family and, at different times, a home for people Tammy loved. Her Grandma Dorothy, her father Gary, her mother Karen and stepfather Delane, both of her brothers, Tom and Jeff, her nephew Travis, and many other relatives all spent periods of time living under that roof. Some came for summer lake fun and some came during much harder chapters of their lives. Tammy welcomed and cared for them all. While she was often carrying worries and anxieties of her own, she rarely let them get in the way of caring for someone else. She had a way of putting her own feelings aside so that the people she loved could feel safe and at home in her space.

The lake was home, but it was not the only place by the water that became deeply important to Tammy and her family. Her dad, Gary, inspired by his own mother's tradition of creating a place for family to gather, built a house on the Sea of Cortez in Mexico in 1989. At the time, it was in the "middle of nowhere." The house was never something the family took for granted as it took years of work, sacrifice, and shared effort to maintain, but everyone understood how special it was to have a place where the family could keep coming together. Tammy loved visiting her dad and grandma there and spending time with her loved ones by the sea.

Trips to Mexico, holidays, summer weekends, and gatherings of all kinds almost always included family from both Tammy's and Thomas's sides coming together. Tammy helped turn two extended families into one that genuinely knew and enjoyed each other and still do to this day. Thomas's sisters Barbara, Carlena, and Virginia were sisters to Tammy as well. Over the years, the lines between "her family" and "his family" faded almost completely. Everyone simply became family to one another.

Throughout all of these chapters, Tammy remained endlessly curious and artistic. Her creativity eventually found one of its most lasting outlets in quilting. How has it taken us this long to get to quilting?? What began as a hobby with her mother and dear friends grew into something Tammy became incredibly talented at and deeply passionate about. She eventually started her own small business T-Shirt Quilts By Tammy, turning people's treasured old shirts into beautiful, intricate quilts they could keep forever. Each quilt took hours and hours of her time and attention, and over the years she made hundreds for family, friends, and people all over the country. She poured an incredible amount of thought into every detail, wanting each quilt to be something its recipient would truly treasure. She would often call Thomas into the quilting room before sewing everything together, asking him to look over the layout and reassure her that every piece was exactly where it should be. So many of the people Tammy loved have something she made with her own hands, and for years to come we will be able to continue to see her creativity, her patience and care, and all those hours she spent making something meaningful for someone else to cherish and enjoy.

Tammy was always learning, always trying to understand herself and other people more deeply, and was always open to new ways of seeing the world. Her house was filled with books on health, healing, religion, spirituality, relationships, and self-understanding, and she loved sharing what she learned with the people she cared about. She was remarkably curious and capable of teaching herself about almost anything that caught her interest, whether it was practical, creative, or spiritual. She read widely, asked questions, took ideas seriously, and was never too proud to admit that she had learned something new or changed her mind. She loved sharing what she was learning with her loved ones, hoping that something she had discovered might help them understand themselves better or make life a little easier in some way.

Spirituality and the search for meaning were woven throughout Tammy's life. She was deeply involved in her church and community, where she was frequently asked to take on leadership roles– teaching Bible studies and women's groups, serving as an elder and preschool teacher, and leading Courtney's Girl Scout troop and other clubs. Over the years, her search for meaning drew her toward a wide range of spiritual traditions, healing practices, and ways of thinking. Tammy approached all of them with an open mind and a genuine desire to keep growing and to find what brought greater peace and understanding to her life and the lives of others.

And then there were all the little things that simply made her Tammy. She loved Mexican food, coloring (so many coloring books!), all things health and wellness, Human Design, the Enneagram, mashed potatoes, playing endless card games with her family and friends, colorful fashion (never afraid to throw in a good hat and many, many accessories), beautiful smells filling the house, crystals and mesmerizing rocks and gemstones, and settling in for Survivor, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters, Downton Abbey, or The Holiday (for what might have been the hundredth time). She loved the sun dearly and anything that caught its light like stained glass, crystals, and the little rainbows they would throw across the walls. She made monster cookies only in enormous freezer-filling batches, loved animals that always inevitably became primarily hers, and was happiest when everyone around her could relax, get comfortable, and just enjoy being together.

In 2026, she finally got to live out something she had wanted for years when she and Thomas spent six months with her brother Jeff and sister-in-law Beckie in the house in Mexico that her father built so many years ago. It gave her a long stretch of the kind of life she loved most. Knowing in hindsight how little time remained with her, we are all especially grateful for those months by the sea.

More than any place she went or anything she made, though, Tammy loved her people and every role she held in their lives. She loved being a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mom, an aunt, and a friend, and she took each of those relationships seriously. She and Thomas spent more than forty years side by side, and she never stopped caring deeply about his health or his happiness. She loved Courtney with a pride and devotion that never wavered, welcomed Kristi as another daughter, adored being Aunt Tammy to her many nieces and nephews, and remained a loving daughter, sister, and loyal friend throughout her years.

At the end of her life, we were able to bring Tammy home to the lake and care for her in return. We would give anything for more time, but we will always be grateful that she was home, surrounded by the people and the place she loved most. In her final weeks she was incredibly at peace. Tammy told us, "I don't know exactly what comes next, but I know it will be amazing, and I'm not afraid. I just wish I could tell you that I'm okay and that I love you once I get there."

We wish she could too. Until then, we will keep finding her in the life she left all around us: at the lake, by the sea, in butterflies and dolphins, in the quilts she made, in the colorful home she created, in the family she brought together, and in the way she taught all of us to care deeply for the people we love and to never be afraid of a life full of color. We love you so much, Tammy. We miss you beyond words.

Tammy was surrounded throughout her life by people she loved deeply: her husband and best friend of 41 years, D. Thomas Petersen; her daughter, Courtney Lynn Petersen-Rhead, whom she loved with endless pride and devotion; her daughter-in-law, Kristi Petersen-Rhead, whom Tammy loved as a daughter; her brother Jeff Freeman and his wife, Beckie; her mother, Karen Davis (McMickle); and her sisters-in-law Barb, Lena, and Ginny. Her circle of love also included her many beloved nieces and nephews—Alex, Amber, Chelsie, Ciera, Dillan, Heather, Joe, Kaity, Kristina, Kristy, Liz, Luke, Molly, and Travis—as well as dear aunts and uncles, cousins, grandnieces and grandnephews, step-siblings, lifelong friends, Lake Ponderosa neighbors, former salon clients, and friends throughout the Montezuma community.

She also carried with her the memory of those she loved who went before her: her cherished dad, Gary Freeman; her beloved brother, Tom Freeman; her treasured grandmother, Dorothy Groves (Tubbs); her loving grandmother, Iris McMickle; her dear stepfather, Delane Davis; and her wonderful nephew, Daniel Minor.

Everyone who loved Tammy at any point in her life is warmly invited to join us for a Celebration of Life in Grinnell, Iowa, on Saturday, August 29, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Grinnell. A reception will follow, with additional details to come.

Tammy filled her life and her home with color, so we would love for everyone attending to wear bright colors, patterns, and prints in her honor.

Tammy loved flowers, and they are warmly welcomed as part of her celebration. Flowers may be sent to 255 Center Point Dr., Montezuma, IA 50171, or brought to the Celebration of Life on August 29.