“Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found was blind but now I see.”
Beverly June (Fyler) Steitz of Inola, Oklahoma, transitioned from her earthly life to her heavenly home on August 24, 2024. She passed peacefully in her sleep to the arms of Jesus in the early hours of the morning, leaving quietly and with dignity.
Beverly was born in Great Bend, Kansas, on July 26, 1930, to William and Blanche Fyler, the fourth of six children. The family later moved to Bison, Kansas, where Beverly attended high school and graduated in 1948. December 18, 1949, Beverly married the love of her life, Eberhardt Steitz at the United Methodist Church. While Eber served his country, Beverly worked for a local dentist office. She was eager to help the young family’s finances and her years in the work force include Dollies, Western Auto, Ben Franklin, and a stint in the Elkhart School District cafeteria. Her favorite job, her most important job, and the vocation for which she was most proud, was that of a mother. On March 17, 1960, the young couple proudly added to their family a baby girl, Janice June. For Beverly, Janice was an answer to her dreams. Four years later, March 19, 1964, the proud couple added a son, Randy Jay, making their family unit complete. Beverly was also a favorite aunt to her many nephews and nieces before and after her children joined the flock. She definitely found her niche as a homemaker where her baking abilities went unsurpassed. Family members in the know say she was most famous for her cinnamon rolls and pumpkin pies. She was not shy about sharing her abilities with granddaughter, Tia, who now follows in her grandmother’s footsteps baking for family get togethers.
Beverly loved to sew, loved cutting hair and giving perms, enjoyed playing the piano by ear and singing to her children, was adventuress when traveling with her husband, and was the life of the party when sharing stories with others. The family laughingly recognize that when Beverly had something to say she had the floor until she was finished.
She and Eberhardt made Elkhart, Kansas, their family home. When he passed in 1993, she continued living in their family residence until she relocated in October, 2017, to Inola, Oklahoma, to live with her son, Randy, where she remained until December 2022. It was at this point she moved to Inola Care Facility.
Her last two years have been filled with the upheaval felt by many families as a cherished elder in the family makes that tragic transition from parent to child, from healthy to weak and tired, from cared for to misunderstood in the chaos of unspeakable illnesses of the old, tired and forgotten. Beverly left a grieving family behind, struggling to make sense of just what the horrors of dementia and how it ravishes a once vital human being bring.
Her legacy remains: Honest love only a parent can show a child and a willingness to forgive that which most think is unforgiveable. Her strengths are many and admired but when she passed her words were few. If she could talk, perhaps she would have used the words of a favorite hymn, “I’m but a stranger here, Heaven is my home; Earth is a desert drear, Heaven is my home. Danger and sorrow stand round me on every hand; Heaven is my fatherland, Heaven is my Home.”
Beverly June Steitz is survived by her sister Joyce Buchholtz; her son, Randy Jay Steitz (Teresa); daughter, Janice June Moe; two granddaughters, AhLia Hoover and Tia (Ryan) Drifka; five great-grandsons and one great-great-grandson; along with a slew of thankful and loving nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her loving husband, Eberhardt Steitz; her parents, William and Blanche Fyler; son-in-law, Ron Moe; brothers, Kenneth Fyler, Bill Fyler, Carl Fyler; and sister, Doris Jackson.
Funeral service will be Thursday, August 29, 2024, at 10:00 A.M. at the First Lutheran Church, La Crosse, Kansas, with Pastor Phyllis Burdge officiating. Interment will be in the La Crosse City Cemetery, La Crosse, Kansas.
In lieu of flowers or plants, the family requests memorials to the First Lutheran Church, La Crosse, Kansas.
Condolences or remembrances may be left for the family at www.janousekfuneralhome.com.
Arrangements were by Janousek Funeral Home, 719 Pine Street, P O Box 550, La Crosse, Kansas 67548, 785/222-2517.