Patricia Peterson is a name shared by at least two notable individuals: Patricia Ann Peterson (1926–2025), an American journalist and fashion editor for The New York Times, and Patricia "Patty" Peterson (c. 1943–2021), the first wife of Michael Peterson, the subject of the true-crime docuseries The Staircase.
Patricia Ann Peterson (1926–2025)
Patricia Ann Peterson (née Louis, June 6, 1926 – June 15, 2025) was an American journalist who served as the fashion editor for The New York Times from 1957 to 1977. She later became Vice President of Advertising, Fashion and Promotion for Henri Bendel, a women's department store in New York City, from 1977 to 1989.
Early Life and Education
Born Patricia Ann Louis in Chicago, Illinois, she graduated from Northwestern University in 1948. She began her fashion career as the fashion editor of the Purple Parrot, Northwestern's student newspaper, in 1946.
Career at The New York Times
Peterson joined The New York Times in December 1956 as assistant fashion editor and was named fashion editor in April 1957. She supervised a department of twelve women and oversaw more than 1,000 fashion pictures annually. She reported on European fashion collections in France, London, and Italy, covering designers such as Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent.
Peterson introduced notable fashion photographers and artists to the Times, including Diane Arbus, Cecil Beaton, Guy Bourdin, Saul Leiter, Duane Michals, and Andy Warhol (who contributed illustrations). She and her husband, photographer Gösta Peterson, collaborated on the first major U.S. fashion magazine cover featuring an identifiably Black model (Naomi Sims) in the August 27, 1967 edition of Fashions of the Times.
Later Career
In 1977, Peterson joined Henri Bendel as vice president in charge of Advertising, Fashion and Promotion, where she worked until her retirement in 1989. She later worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, retiring in 2015.
Personal Life and Death
She married photographer Gösta Peterson in 1954, and the couple had two children. Gösta Peterson died in 2017. Patricia Peterson died at home in Manhattan on June 15, 2025, at the age of 99.
Patricia "Patty" Peterson (c. 1943–2021)
Patricia "Patty" Peterson (died July 8, 2021) was the first wife of Michael Peterson, the American novelist who was convicted (and later released) for the 2001 death of his second wife, Kathleen Peterson, a case documented in the Netflix docuseries The Staircase.
Patty Peterson married Michael Peterson in the 1960s, and the couple had two sons, Clayton and Todd. The family lived in Germany for a period when Patty worked for the U.S. Department of Defense. During their time in Germany, a family friend, Elizabeth Ratliff, was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in 1985—a death that later became a point of comparison in Michael Peterson's trial. Michael and Patty divorced in the 1980s.
Patricia Peterson died on July 8, 2021, at Duke University Hospital after suffering a massive heart attack, at the age of 78.
Other Individuals
There are also other individuals named Patricia Peterson in various professional fields, including a researcher in molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University, but these are less widely known in public discourse.
