Delores J. Steele

Delores Joyce (Leaf) Steele passed away Wednesday, May 27, 2020.  Funeral Services will be held at 1 PM Wednesday, June 3, at Bayview/Freeborn Funeral Home with visitation 2 hours prior to services at the funeral home.  Interment will be at Pickerel Lake Cemetery. The service will be live streamed on the Bayview Freeborn Facebook Page beginning at 12:55 PM Wednesday.

Delores was born July 17, 1935 to Conrad and Elida (Hansen) Leaf in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin.  After her father's passing, she moved to Albert Lea with her mother to be closer to family. Delores grew up in Albert Lea and graduated from Albert Lea High School. She attended the Naeve School of Nursing and graduated as an RN in 1956.  She married Gerald Steele in November of 1956 and they were blessed with a son Michael and a daughter Susan. The couple continued to live in Albert Lea and Delores worked at Naeve Hospital in the surgical unit and the nursery. After her nursing career, Delores followed her passion for travel by embarking on a number of mission trips. The mission trips included traveling to Boston, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Bogota, Columbia. Her favorite among these was Trinidad where she made and maintained many special relationships. She met the Bachew family while in Trinidad and had many fun and memorable adventures traveling with their family steel pan band as they toured in the U.S., spreading the Message and Love of God. She loved camping and sitting around the campfire. She also enjoyed knitting and could not pass up a knit shop. Any chance at going for a car ride was taken, and  she had a love for good Southern Gospel music.

Delores is survived by her daughter, Sue Steele; her "Trinidadian son," Sonny Ghany; cousin, James Brill; and special nieces, Carol Breimhorst; Connie Booth; Jodi Horton; Lori Austin; Lynette Ginger and their families. She is preceded in death by her husband, Gerald; son, Michael; parents, Conrad and Elida (Hansen) Leaf; sister, Donna Marie; and cousin, Jack Brill.