Billie Ann Steward

Billie Ann Steward, 94, formerly of Jefferson City and Poplar Bluff, died Wednesday, December 25, 2013, at the Jeanne Jugan Center of the Little Sisters of the Poor, in Kansas City, Missouri. She was born March 3, 1919, in Bonnots Mill, Missouri, the daughter of the late Henry and Maude Flanagan Dieckriede. She was married on January 25, 1940, in Jefferson City to Dwight V. Steward who preceded her in death on October 16, 1970. After graduating from high school, Mrs. Steward attended Fontbonne University in St. Louis and the University of Missouri at Columbia. She and her husband raised their five children in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. The family were members of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and Mrs. Steward occasionally served as a substitute teacher in the Poplar Bluff school system. In the years following her husband's death, she moved to Kansas City and joined the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, eventually to be confirmed as a consecrated widow. While maintaining her affiliation with this order, she moved to Jefferson City to be near her three sons. During her years in Jefferson City, she volunteered with the prison ministry program through St. Peter's Catholic Church. Also during this time, she spent a number of months each year in Belen, New Mexico, where she served as a member of the Ecclesial Team under the direction of priests and nuns of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. Mrs. Steward continued her ministry work with the Catholic Church until failing health led her to the Jeanne Jugan Center of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Kansas City, where she lived and was lovingly cared for from December 2004 until her death. She is survived by three sons, all of Jefferson City: Dick Steward and wife Deborah, Mark Steward and wife Alice, and Bill Steward; two daughters: Mary Maude Steward and husband Jay Solnick of Davis, California; and Anne Steward and her partner Angela Robinson of Overland Park, Kansas; five grandchildren: Natalie DiBenedetto of Portland, Maine; Christie Steward Dawson of Kansas City; Benjamin and Jonathan Solnick of Davis, California; and Dwight Steward of Arvada, Colorado; and two great-grandchildren: Basil DiBenedetto of Portland, Maine; and Blake Dawson of Kansas City. She was preceded in death by her parents and husband and by her grandson, Daniel Steward of Jefferson City, and her sister, Ruth Sutphin of Kansas City. A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 a.m. Saturday, December 28, 2013, at the Jeanne Jugan Center of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Kansas City with the Rev. Paul Grala, SOLT, officiating. Burial will be 3 p.m. Saturday at Resurrection Cemetery in Jefferson City. Memorials may be made to the Jeanne Jugan Center of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 8745 James A. Reed Road, Raytown, MO 64138. Arrangements are under the direction of Dulle-Trimble Funeral Home in Jefferson City. Those wishing to email tributes or condolences to the family may do so at the www.dulletrimble.com website.