Mr. Kenneth F. Steele Sr.

Kenneth Franklin Steele, Sr., 96, of 354 Monticello Road, Statesville, died April 22, 2010. He was born in Bloomington, Illinois, on January 21, 1914, to Richard “Dick” Neill Steele and Addie Knox Steele. He graduated from Cleveland High School in 1933. He held a variety of jobs - school bus driver, gas station attendant at Myrtle Beach, worker on large warships in Baltimore, Maryland, and more. In 1943, he joined the Marine Corps and obtained the rank of Staff Sargeant by 1946, the date of his honorable discharge. He wore the Sharp Shooter ribbon. After the war, he worked for the Farmers Cooperative Exchange (FCX) for about 22 years, where he learned to set up and repair milking equipment throughout North Carolina and parts of Virginia and South Carolina. During his last few years with the FCX he taught himself to repair fence chargers. At the age of 55, he went into business for himself—dairy supplies and repair of dairy equipment and fence chargers. Over the years he changed his business, first dropping his repair of equipment and then shortening his routes. He worked on fence charges the longest—his last repair was a month ago. He married Ruth Virginia Wilhelm in 1935, and his only child was born in 1944. In the years after his wife’s death in 1988, he became active in the kitchen, making no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies at Christmas time and mastering jams and jellies before moving on to wine, often made from fruit from his own trees and vines. He enjoyed blue grass and country music, attending jam sessions at Union Grove and making a number of pilgrimages to Dollywood. A longtime, avid coin collector, he attended his last Iredell Coin Club meeting last year. He lived on Monticello Road for more than 60 years, forming close friendships with neighbors, near and far. He cut grass for, did yard work for, and generally helped many neighbors over the years—and many neighbors returned the favor, helping him especially in his last years. In addition to his parents and wife, Kenneth was preceded in death by three sisters—Blanche Steele Reitzel, Dorothy Steele Shell, and Evelyn Steele Llewellyn, all of Statesville—and a brother—Raymond Knox Steele, of Mooresville. Surviving are his sister, Mildred Steele Pence, of Statesville; his son, Kenneth Franklin Steele, Jr., of Fayetteville, Arkansas; his two granddaughters; his one great grandson; several nieces and nephews; and innumerable friends and neighbors. A service celebrating Kenneth’s life will be held at 3:00 pm Sunday in the Westmoreland Chapel of Bunch-Johnson Funeral Home with the Rev. Jill Rhinehart officiating. Burial will follow at Iredell Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends from 2:00 to 3:00 pm at the funeral home. The family would like to thank the Hospice staff for the loving care shown to Kenneth at the end of his life. Memorials may be given to Hospice & Palliative Care of Iredell County, 2347 Simonton Road, Statesville, NC 28625 or Monticello Church, 308 Island Ford Road, Statesville, N.C. 28625.

Condolences may be sent on-line to the family to www.bunchjohnsonfuneralhome.com. Bunch-Johnson Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements.