Babette Peyton, disabled Army veteran who competed in archery tournaments, dies at

Babette Peyton, a disabled Army veteran, was an inspirational figure to thousands of Chicagoans.

Sitting in her wheelchair, Ms. Peyton shot a bow and arrow using one arm and her mouth.

She bit into a mouth tab attached to the bow string, extended her right arm holding the bow, aimed, and unclenched her jaw — flinging her arrow at the target.

Ms. Peyton, who was partially paralyzed following a training accident in the Army and a stroke later in life, won more than 150 medals competing in archery tournaments around the country and the world.

And she did it with a indefatigable and contagious happiness.

"She's a person you don't forget because she brings so much joy," said Derek Daniels, who worked with Ms. Peyton as director of Adaptive Sports and Fitness at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab.

Ms. Peyton died Feb. 11 from natural causes. She was 73.

In 2009, unsure about her future after suffering a stroke and being confined to a wheelchair, Ms. Peyton attended a military paralympic sports camp in Newport, Rhode Island, where she first tried archery.

Instructor Kevin Stone showed her how to use her teeth to hold the draw string. Her first two arrows missed the target. She fired four more without noticing much where they landed, until she was told that two of them were bullseyes.

"At first she sat out, didn't want to participate because it looked to difficult, but I was like 'Nobody sits out at my clinic,'" recalled Stone, a military paralympic athlete and mentor who showed MS. Peyton how to shoot.

"She told me later that I changed her life," Stone said.

"One thing I remember emphatically about her was how happy she was and how she had an infectious laugh . . . she really, really did, and she was just a joy to be around always," Stone said.

Ms. Peyton took public transportation and practiced archery at various ranges in Chicago, including at the Croc Center, and was a regular participant at the Valor Games Midwest, a competition hosted by the Chicago Park District for veterans and service members with disabilities.

She was also a disabilities advocate who was recognizable by elected officials from all over the Chicago area for her heart and her persuasive powers, recalled Ald. David Moore (17th).

"She'd come to constituent night to give me my orders in terms of making things more accessible in the ward, and then she'd say, before I could even reply, 'And, David, I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it.' And it shut me right up and all I could say was 'I'll get on it,'" Moore said.

She was also part of a group of veterans who were the driving force behind the creation of the South Side Memorial Day Parade, Moore said.

Ms. Peyton was featured on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” in 2020 that opened with footage of Ms. Peyton rolling up in her wheelchair to a community garden in Gresham to feed some roosters, which ran to her as she sang: "Thank you, God. I want to tell you that I love you. I want to tell you that I'm thinking of you. Every minute, every hour, every second of the day. How you doing? I love you! Come on!"

Ms. Peyton was born Aug 15, 1952, to Arthur Peyton Jr., an Air Force veteran who later worked as a mail carrier, and Rosette Caldwell Peyton, a special education teacher.

She grew up in South Shore and graduated from South Shore High School before joining the Army in 1973.

Stationed in West Germany, Ms. Peyton worked at hospital when she was court-martialed in 1975 for refusing to remove cornrows from her hair, a case that was covered in the media.

The case was ultimately dismissed because it was determined that the order to remove the cornrows had been improperly issued, according to a United Press International story published in 1975.

"She was very outspoken and stood up for anything she thought wasn't right, especially all types of discrimination," said her niece, Kathy Chaney, a former Sun-Times editor.

Ms. Peyton suffered a spinal injury in 1976 that was the result of a friendly fire incident during a training exercise in her last year in the Army, she told the Sun-Times in a story published in 2020.

She was honorably discharged and later attended the University of Maryland before earning a Master of Arts in education from Northwestern University, her family said.

She also was an entrepreneur who started the Peyton Elevator Company with her brother Renard Peyton, which installed elevators in Chicago, including at several South Side churches.

"She was the first Black female elevator contractor in the city," Chaney said.

Her message to everyone was always "Do not give up," her family said.

She is survived by her siblings Celeste Randolph and Renard Peyton, as well as 11 nephews and nieces.