Martha Peterson


Martha Jane "Marti" Peterson, now known as Martha Peterson Shogi, is a former operations officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency as part of the TRIGON mission.

Early life and education

Peterson was born Martha Jane Denny, on May 27, 1945, in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Riley and Dorothy Denny, while she grew up in Darien, Connecticut, with her sister, Mary Alice. She graduated from Darien High School in 1963 and Drew University in 1967.

Career

Peterson joined the CIA after learning Russian in 1975. She was the first female officer sent to work in the Soviet Union in Moscow, dealing with dead drops to TRIGON, who was compromised while working in South America. Peterson retired from the CIA in 2003. She wrote a book about some of her experience in the CIA, entitled, The Widow Spy.

Personal life

Peterson met her first husband, John Peterson, during her first week of college. They married in 1969. He was from Bellingham, Massachusetts. Between 1967 and 1969, he served in the Special Forces, and later became a Green Beret and CIA Officer. He was killed in the Vietnam War in a helicopter crash on October 19, 1972. On November 23, 1978, she married her second husband, State Department official Stephen Joseph Shogi. They have two children.. She resides in Wilmington, North Carolina.