Verla Jean Steege, 83
Verla Jean Steege, age 83 of Fredericksburg, died peacefully Thursday April 13, 2023, at Allen Memorial Hospital in Waterloo.
Funeral services were held 11 a.m. Friday, April 28, 2023, at the Peace United Church of Christ in Fredericksburg with the Rev. Scott Smith officiating.
Burial followed in Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery in Readlyn. There was a two-hour visitation before the service at the church, beginning at 9 a.m.
Those unable to attend Verla’s funeral service could join the family via Livestream by visiting her obituary page on the funeral home website, www.hugebackfuneralhome.com
Hugeback-Johnson Funeral Home and Crematory of Fredericksburg was entrusted with arrangements. Online condolences for the Steege family may be left at www.hugebackfuneralhome.com.
Verla Jean Bartels was born on Nov. 3, 1939, to Elmer and Viola (Brandt) Bartels in Tripoli. She was baptized on Dec. 3, 1939, at Zion Lutheran Church, Readlyn. Her father died of illness on February 29, 1940, when she was 4 months old. Verla and her mother resided with her grandparents, Adolf and Amanda Bartels, until Feb. 3, 1943, when her mother married Harry Thoms. They moved to his farm west of Waverly.
Verla received her grade school education at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church School in Waverly. She confirmed her faith at St. Paul’s on April 11, 1954. She attended Waverly High School from 1954 to 1958. She served as editor of the school newspaper and of the literary publication. She was a member of the National Honor Society and salutatorian of her graduating class.
Verla attended Wartburg College for two years — then taught for two years in La Porte City, continuing to gain summer school credits.
She met Larry at a wedding dance in June 1961, at the Riviera Ballroom in Janesville. They continued dating, mostly dancing and roller skating, while Verla finished a year of teaching and her last year of college. On Valentine’s Day 1963, they became engaged.
A month after her college graduation, on a very hot Sunday June 30, 1963, Verla married the love of her life, Larry Steege, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Waverly. They honeymooned for a month, mostly sleeping in a tent to save money. They visited the Badlands, Black Hills, Yellowstone and Oregon, where they spent a week with Larry’s brother and family.
The couple farmed near Fredericksburg, acquiring land from neighbors and Larry’s father. Verla taught first grade at Nashua from 1963 to 1967.
They had two beautiful daughters. Vicki was born in May 1968, and Karla in June 1970.
Verla began teaching again in 1973 at the Fredericksburg Elementary School in Title I Reading and the talented and gifted program. She obtained a reading endorsement and also trained in reading recovery. She started Odyssey of the Mind at Fredericksburg in 1990, a national youth creative problem-solving organization. She served as a regional and state judge and a state-level judge trainer.
Verla had a mastectomy for breast cancer in the summer of 1993. She had 12 rounds of chemotherapy during the school year, only missing school a half-day for each one. She retired in 2004 with 37 years of teaching, 31 of them in Fredericksburg.
She volunteered at school — doing fall and spring reading testing from 2004 to 2017. She also volunteered at Denver Elementary, where two of her grandchildren were students. She became office manager as she and Larry continued to farm in retirement.
Verla loved books and reading to her grandchildren from her large collection.
Verla and Larry traveled to almost every U.S. state, Europe, and England. After Verla retired, they went to Alaska and Hawaii and took two cruises, with a highlight being a cruise through the Panama Canal.
In 2010, they began taking their family of 11, which included five grandchildren, on family vacations. They went to Yellowstone, Colorado Springs, Rocky Mountain National Park, Glacier National Park, Duluth and the North Shore, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown and Thunder Bay, Canada.
Verla was active in the Peace UCC church family. She taught Sunday school most of her adult life. She was the Sunday school director for five years and served on the Christian Education Committee for 58 years. Verla taught a confirmation class for many years and helped start a junior high youth group, serving as one of its leaders from 1967 to 1973. She started helping serve in her congregation’s turn at the senior citizen meal site in 2010. In 2013 she became the Compassion leader and wrote letters to the congregation’s two Compassion children and her own child, Teirseit Fikne.
In 2016 Verla started God’s Love on Wednesday, an evening family night. She told a Bible story, sometimes with children in costumes, and led games. Verla loved to dance. She and Larry went to Polka Club dances with their friends. She sang in the church choir about 35 years. She enjoyed spending time attending the grandchildren’s plays, concerts, and competitions.
Verla liked to read and was an avid Bible reader, underlining passages in her four Bibles and planning her own Sunday school lessons. She firmly believed in the power of prayer. Verla was proud of having spent her adult life until age 80 teaching Sunday school.
On June 13, 2021, a fireside room was dedicated in honor of Verla during the worship service at Peace Church. The planning and furnishing of the room was done by her fellow Christian Education team.
At the end of her life, Verla could still recite the 66 books of the Bible, the 23rd and 100th Psalms, and numerous hymns memorized in grade school.
Survivors are her best friend and husband of 60 years, Larry; two daughters, Vicki (Tim) Sommerfeldt and Karla Krueger; five grandchildren, Kayleigh, Sierra, and Isaac Sommerfeldt, and Karter and Karris Krueger; and two sisters, Janice Johnson and Marilyn Herrli.
She was preceded in death by her father, mother and stepfather, as well as five brothers-in-law, Nathan Johnson, Robert Herrli, John Steege, Marvin Ackerman, and Marlowe
Steege.
