Olive Stone Avery Peterson (January 20, 1898 – February 10, 1965)''Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014''.

Social Security Administration The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability and survivor benefits. To qualify ...

. was an American

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

player and teacher from St. Davids, Pennsylvania, on the

Philadelphia Main Line The Philadelphia Main Line, known simply as the Main Line, is an informally delineated historical and social region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lying along the former Pennsylvania Railroad's once prestigious Main Line, it runs ...

Biography

Peterson was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

and moved to Indiana as a child. In 1925, she moved to Philadelphia, and was one of several strong bridge players based in the city. She was the "chief assistant" of

Milton Work Milton Cooper Work (September 15, 1864 – June 27, 1934) was an American authority on whist, bridge whist, auction and contract bridge. At least during the 19th century he was a cricket player, writer, and official. Work, Sidney Lenz, and Oswa ...

, an extraordinarily successful lecturer and writer on the game (and sometimes called its "Grand Old Man"), when she developed a partnership with young

Charles Goren Charles Henry Goren (March 4, 1901 – April 3, 1991) was an American bridge player and writer who significantly developed and popularized the game. He was the leading American bridge personality in the 1950s and 1960s – or 1940s and 1950s, as " ...

.Truscott, Alan and Dorothy (2004). ''The New York Times Bridge Book: An Anecdotal History of the Development, Personalities, and Strategies of the World's Most Popular Card Game''. Macmillan. Pages 87–88.

Selection
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

retrieved 2014-12-08. Goren "became Mr. Work's technical assistant by the end of the decade".Truscott, Alan (April 12, 1991)
"Charles Goren, 90, Bridge Expert, Dies"
''The New York Times''. Page A17. Retrieved 2014-12-09. Peterson and Work conducted a 36-day bridge cruise on the ocean liner '' Carinthia'' to the

North Cape, Norway North Cape ( no, Nordkapp; sme, Davvenjárga) is a cape on the northern coast of the island of Magerøya in Northern Norway. The cape is in Nordkapp Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The European route E69 highway has its nort ...

, and Russia in 1933. After he died in June 1934, Peterson assisted Goren "especially at bridge teachers' conventions"; "in seminars for 35 years". Peterson and Maud Zontlein were the first winners of the Whitehead Trophy in 1930, the national championship for women pairs that continues as the

Whitehead Women's Pairs The Whitehead Women's Pairs bridge championship is held at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Whitehead Women's Pairs is a four-session matchpoint (MP) pairs event with two qualifying ...

(North America-level in the ACBL). With different partners she won again in 1932 (Mrs. Jay Jones) and 1945 ( Peggy Golder), placed second in 1935 ( Doris Fuller). In the

Hilliard Mixed Pairs The Hilliard Mixed Pairs national bridge championship was last held at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). History This was the original national mixed pairs event. It was contested at the ...

, then the premier tournament for mixed pairs (male–female), she was 1942 runner-up with John R. Crawford and 1943 winner with Goren. In women , she was a winner in 1938 and 1942, a runner-up four times from 1948 to 1954 – perhaps in partnership with Peggy Golder/Solomon from 1942 onward ( Women's Board-a-Match Teams). In mixed teams, she was a winner four times from 1940 to 1944 and a runner-up in 1952 ( Master Mixed Teams). She was Master Individual runner-up in 1942; women were winners only twice, runners-up only twice, in thirty renditions before that individuals championship was discontinued. Peterson and

Margaret Wagar Margaret Wagar (April 6, 1902 – January 6, 1990) was an American bridge player from Delaware, Ohio and Atlanta, Georgia. The premier American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) annual championship for women teams since 1976 is the Wagar Women's Kno ...

became ACBL Life Masters number 36 and 37 in 1943, the fourth and fifth women to achieve the rank after Sally Young,

Helen Sobel Helen Elizabeth Sobel Smith (''née'' Martin; May 22, 1909 – September 11, 1969) was an American bridge player. She is said to have been the "greatest woman bridge player of all time" and "may well have been the most brilliant card player of ...

, and Peggy Solomon."First 100 Life Masters"
''Glossary and Library'' Bridge Guys (bridgeguys.com). Retrieved 2014-11-01. Peterson's husband was Harold Peterson, whom she married in 1919. She died in Philadelphia on February 10, 1965, age 67 years old.

Publications

In a bridge column published during the week following her death,

Alan Truscott Alan Fraser Truscott (16 April 1925 – 4 September 2005) was a British-American bridge player, writer, and editor. He wrote the daily bridge column for ''The New York Times'' for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005, and served as Executive Editor for th ...

credited Peterson with four books but named none of them. * ''One Hundred and One Celebrated Hands in Contract Bridge: Bid and Played'', edited by Milton Work and Peterson (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1933), 215 pp., "One Hundred and One Celebrated Hands in Contract Bridge: Bid and Played"
(bibliographic data). Google Books. Retrieved 2014-12-08. * ''The Work–Peterson Accurate Valuation System of Contract Bridge'', Work and Peterson (Winston, 1934), 101 pp., * ''Common-sense Contract: Featuring the Goren System'', foreword by Charles Goren (Peterson, 193?), 80 pp., "Common-sense Contract: Featuring the Goren System"
(bibliographic data). Google Books. Retrieved 2014-12-08.

Bridge accomplishments

Honors

* Honorary Secretary of the ACBL, 1951 – recognizing "her many executive contributions to the game"

Wins

North American Bridge Championships North American Bridge Championships (NABC) are three annual bridge tournaments sponsored by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). The "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall" NABCs are usually scheduled in March, July, and November for about eleven da ...

(10) **

(3) 1930, 1932, 1945 **

(1) 1943 ** Wagar Women's Knockout Teams (2) 1938, 1942 **

Chicago Mixed Board-a-Match The Mixed Board-a-Match Teams is a bridge competition held at the summer American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. It ...

(4) 1940, 1942, 1943, 1944

Runners-up

** Master Individual (1) 1942 **

(1) 1935 **

(1) 1942 ** Wagar Women's Knockout Teams (4) 1948, 1950, 1953, 1954 **

(1) 1952

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Olive 1898 births 1965 deaths American contract bridge players Contract bridge writers People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania People from Cincinnati