Born in Edina, Minnesota, to former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Carl Donald Peterson and mother Gretchen Elaine Palen Peterson, Burwell grew up in Edina, Minnesota with four brothers: Todd Douglas, Scott Jeffrey, Craig Donald, Mark Bradley. And one sister, Polly Suzanne.
Saint Olaf College.
Barbara Elaine Peterson Burwell (née Peterson. Born November 25, 1953) is an American model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned 1976. She graduated from Edina High School and was a junior at Saint Olaf College in Northfield when she decided to participate in Burwell won the title of Mission Minnesota United States of America and represented her state in the 1976 pageant broadcast live from Niagara Falls in May that year, winning the title and becoming the first from Minnesota in the history of the pageant. As the official representative of her country to the 1976 Mission Universe pageant in Hong Kong, Burwell would become the first titleholder not to advance to the semifinal round of the Mission Universe pageant, which did not happen again until 1999. Burwell was also a judge at the 1990 pageant and resides in the Minneapolis metropolitan area.
