Lakewood | Once just a few blocks straddling West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood now covers about 45 square miles. Of the estimated 63,000
households in modern day Lakewood, more than 34,000 moved into their homes in 2000 or later.
Rita Peterson sits, as she does every workday, in her office at the family-run real estate appraisal business she helped start with her husband in 1977. Her hair and clothes are perfect, her fuchsia-colored nails tap against computer keys.
“My philosophy is to keep the body active and the mind sharp,” she says, gazing out the window as the snow from a morning storm continues to rise, “Today would’ve been a perfect day to stay home and go back to bed but I didn’t. I came to work. That’s what I do.”
Few would guess her 71 years, probably putting the estimate a good decade or more lower.
She and her husband, David, are Jefferson County natives who have lived their entire lives within a 5-mile radius. They remember farm fields where shopping malls now stand but don’t bemoan the change.
“We lived through the oil bust of the ’80s. I think development and progress is good,” she says.
The couple were high school sweethearts at Bear Creek High School and married when David was in college. They still live in the six-bedroom, suburban two-story where they raised three children – all of whom now work for the family business.
An advocate for senior issues, she describes herself as politically moderate. She volunteers for Republicans but is not afraid to stray from the party line.
She thinks soldiers should stay in Iraq until “the job is done,” but opposes the notion of vouchers in schools. As a product of public school whose children also attended them, she thinks leaders should concentrate of improving public education instead of diluting the issue with a voucher program. She also thinks abortion should remain a private matter outside politics.
She does worry, though, that the infighting among Republicans will damage them this election. “I think all the gains the Republicans have made could be undone.”
– Jenny Deam
