Fred Steward

SIKESTON — Fred Harty Steward Jr., 83, died at 8:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

He was born Nov. 21, 1936, in Kennett, to the late Fred H. and Ruth Byassee Steward of Sikeston. He graduated from Sikeston High School in 1954 and thereafter attended Washington University in St. Louis where he studied engineering and played football and baseball. After serving in the U.S. Army, he returned to Sikeston to work for Steward Steel Supply, the company founded by his father in 1950.

On Nov. 9, 1962, he married his high school sweetheart, Linda L. Boyce, who preceded him in death on May 1, 2011.

He was actively involved in Republican politics. He served his community in many ways, including serving on the Board of Directors for the Sikeston Public School Foundation and the Bank of Sikeston/US Bank. He was also a member of the Kiwanis Club for many years. He had a passion for sports that lasted his lifetime, playing basketball, baseball and football in high school, playing fast pitch softball and tennis mid life and playing golf through the end of his life.

He leaves to remember and to celebrate his life, his daughter, Rebecca Steward and her husband, Rob Purves, of Sikeston; sons, Christopher Steward and his wife, Chesnye, and Jonathan "JJ" Steward and his wife, Ashli, of Sikeston; sister Dorothy Ann (Ken) Richardson of Tyler, Texas; brother, Larry F. (Mary Jane) Steward, of Naples, Florida; special friend Margaret Cavalieri, of Homosassa, Florida; and eight grandchildren, Caroline Steward, Clark Steward, Isabella Ruth Steward, Reese Steward, Anna Purves, William Henry Steward, Leo Boyce Harty Steward and Maemie Pearl Steward of Sikeston.

He loved life and lived every day to its fullest, always the optimist and always seeing the good in people.

Funeral services will be held graveside at Garden of Memories Cemetery in Sikeston at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Nunnelee Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

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Donations or memorial contributions may be made to:

Sikeston Public Schools Foundation

1002 Virginia

Sikeston MO 63801

or

Missouri Delta Medical Center Foundation

1008 N. Main

Sikeston MO 63801