Annette Jo Steucke

Annette Steucke, a brilliant woman, loving mother and grandmother, wife, cookbook author, professional artist, family therapist, and friend of many, died at home in her sleep on January 17, 2018, following a rapid decline due to multiple ailments.

She married young, and had three girls, (Cathy, Stacy, & Susan) all by the age of nineteen. Her husband left her several times during this period and she got a divorce in the spring of 1960. In November 1960 she married Paul Steucke, a marriage that lasted 58 years. They added one son, Paul Junior, to the family.

In 1981 she graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of Alaska, and subsequently earned a Master of Art degree in Psychology from the prestigious Saybrook Institute in San Francisco, California. She went on to become a successful family therapist and director of the State of Alaska’s Anchorage office adoption unit.

In 2008 she wrote a comprehensive cookbook of over 500 recipes, “Annette’s Cookbook, Fifty Years of Good Cooking”, that is still in print. It has received rave reviews from everyone who has used it. The dedication to her cookbook reads, “This cookbook is dedicated with love and appreciation to all my Beloveds, with whom I have shared so many foretastes to Heaven.”

Annette was an accomplished artist with works that have been hung in numerous galleries and juried art shows.

Her husband’s Federal Civil Service career took them from Northern Virginia, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, back to Virginia, then to Anchorage, Alaska where they lived 17 years. Paul’s last Federal position was in Washington. DC, and upon retiring they moved to Kona Hawaii. A year later they moved to Olympia, Washington to be near four granddaughters who lived five doors down the street. She was a doting grandmother and had a significant opportunity to help the girls grow into wonderful professional women and mothers.

She and husband Paul, as volunteers, taught art every week for five years to elderly residents at the Olympics Senior Living Community in Tumwater. Annette often said it was not only a wonderful art opportunity but it also gave her an opportunity to provide friendly counsel to the residents who came to class. They were also avid square dancers in the Olympia area dance clubs.

She declined to have a memorial service. The family plans on having a big family dinner in her honor when the summer weather arrives. Her husband Paul plans on continuing to live in the family home where he has an art studio and can continue to work on his next book, “The Curmudgeon Speaks”, a book of truth as seen through the wisdom of age.

She is missed by everyone, is now without pain, has been reunited with family, and Chichi, their beloved Chihuahua.

Annette is survived by her husband, Paul, sister, Charlotte Watson, brothers, John and Craig Hagaman, children, Catherine, Stacy, Susan, and Paul Jr. Five grandchild, Ashley, Courtney, Kerianne, Taylor, and Ryan, and four great-grandchildren.

As Paul wrote in “Burbia Boy”, one of this two family history books, “The body is not who we are, the body is what we live in.” That is dramatically brought home to the heart with the loss of a loved one.

At the end of her cookbook’s introduction Annette says she wanted to be welcomed to the Pearly Gates” of heaven with “Come on in! Supper’s almost ready, and we need someone to make the salad.” And a wonderful salad it is. We miss her!

Until we meet again.