Tom Peterson, whose face and voice were instantly recognizable as a local-TV pitchman for a generation of Portlanders, died Monday at age 86.

Robert Condon, Peterson's son-in-law and former president of the Tom Peterson & Gloria's Too retail chain, said Peterson spent the last 30 months of his life at Emerson House in Southeast Portland, where he received care for advanced Parkinson's disease.

"I'm heartbroken," Condon told The Oregonian/OregonLive. "I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. That's probably the way I will remember him most."

From the 1970s into the 2000s, ads for Peterson's furniture and appliance stores featured the company founder and were a constant presence on local TV. His catchphrases - from "Wake up" to "The happy place to buy" and "Free is a very good price" - made him a celebrity.

Peterson opened his first store in 1964, and eventually built it into a regional chain that stretched from Eugene to Spokane. That company filed for bankruptcy in 1991, but was reborn a year later under Condon's guidance but with Peterson once again on the sales floor and acting as the public face of the enterprise.

By 2009, that second incarnation of the company closed its final store as Peterson's health worsened.

"I love that man," Condon said Monday. "He gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, he employed thousands, he was an icon in this city."

Peterson is survived by his wife of 62 years, Gloria.

-- Scott Bernard Nelson

503-221-8423; @ScottNelson