1936-2022
Loretta Ann (Little Bird) Steere, 86 of Joplin, Missouri, died Monday, May 23, 2022, in Joplin.
Funeral service was 10 a.m. Friday, May 27, 2022, in Parker Mortuary Chapel. A visitation was 6-7 p.m. Thursday, May 26, 2022, in Parker Mortuary. Interment followed in Cheyenne Cemetery, in Cheyenne.
Loretta was born April 11, 1936, in the Clinton Indian Hospital. She was the second oldest of seven children born to Alfred Little Bird, Jr., 1914-55, and Lola Mae (Lee) Little Bird, 1917- 2001.
School was first attended at Colony, where her parents operated a café and farmed. After moving to Weatherford, the family relocated to Oklahoma City in 1945 where Alfred worked for the Borden Company and Lola was employed by Douglas Aircraft as a “Rosie the Riveter.” With the end of World War II, the family returned to Weatherford.
As a teenager, Loretta helped support herself by working as a waitress in Weatherford. After graduation from Weatherford High School in 1954, she continued to waitress while attending Southwestern State College. It was there Bobby Steere, a U.S. Air Force veteran who had returned to Southwestern, courted and married the tannedskinned beauty in 1955.
Occasionally presenting programs regarding her grandmother Rebecca’s beadwork, many knew of Loretta’s Arapaho tribal heritage. Her father Alfred’s parents were Old Man and Rebecca Garcia and her grandfather Old Man’s parents were Little Bird and his second wife “Mrs. Little Bird.” Little Bird, a medicine man, was one of the original 18 reservations Indians who joined John Seger in his establishment of the historic Seger Arapaho Tribal Princess in 1955. Loretta’s matriarchal grandparents were Birdie (Boatman) and Martin Lee.
After marriage in 1955 by a Justice of the Peace in Chickasha, the couple stretched Bob’s $110 monthly GI check by both working part-time at 50 cents per hour jobs and pulling cotton for 2 cents per pound Saturdays. Twins Ricky and Vicki were born shortly before the young family moved to Las Vegas in 1956. Except for an interim at Logan, Utah, where Patti was born in 1966 and Bob finished his doctorate, the family lived in LV until their move to Joplin, Missouri, in 1969. Son Keith Jon was born in Las Vegas in 1961.
In Joplin, Loretta continued to lovingly mother her children into adulthood while assisting in Girl Scouts and working for Welcome Wagon. Neighborhood children knew they always were welcomed at Mrs. Steere’s house. Later, she worked at the Children’s House and Newman’s Department Store. Loretta was a longtime member and officer of the Woman’s Club of Joplin and she tremendously enjoyed playing Bridge and the camaraderie of her friends.
Loretta traveled extensively. Each summer she and Bob vacationed with their children in various states. After retirement, the couple continued traveling the states, plus visiting seven European nations plus other countries exemplified by China, Vietnam, Singapore, Guadalajara, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Israel. That said, at age 73, Loretta refused to ride a cantankerous camel in Egypt. Special sojourns were when the couple were sailing guests of friends Judy and Jim Steele in the Bahamas and among the Virgin Islands.
The pleasant disposition and beauty of this loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend — will forever be remembered.
Survivors include: her children, Vicki Ann Nelson and husband, Fred, of Hutchinson, Kansas, Patti Sue Steere, of Joplin, Missouri, and son, Ricky Bob Steere, of Joplin, Missouri; grandchildren: Ty Nelson, of Las Vegas, Nevada, Dustin Nelson and wife, Samantha Mehrotra, of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Nicole Nelson, of Oakland, California, Andrea Steere and husband, Josh Wise, of Sunnyside, New York, Spencer Pittman, of Portland, Oregon, Jacob Pittman and fiancé’, Addison Ladd, of Centerton, Arkansas; great grandson, Avi Nelson; sisters, Lorene Bishop, Janice Markum and husband, Don Nikkel, and Rebecca Leonard and husband, Steve; brother, Forrest Little Bird and wife, Sandy, of Weatherford; sister-in-law, Laquita Little Bird, of Weatherford; and several nieces and nephews.
In addition to her parents, Loretta was preceded in death by: her husband, Dr. Bobby F. Steere, who passed away April 19, 2019; a son, Keith Jon Steere; brother, Anthony Little Bird; sister, Wanda Leathers and her husband, Bill; and brother-in-law, Bill Bishop.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Alzheimer Association care of Parker Mortuary. Online condolences may be posted at www. parkermortuary.com.