Cleo Steffens, nee Cleo Ann Hoffmann, 97, born Aug. 11, 1926, died peacefully Monday evening Nov. 13, 2023, at Friendship Village Chesterfield, St. Louis, where she had lived in recent years.
She was the second daughter of Luster G. Hoffmann and Cora Wissmann Hoffmann of Hoffmann’s Acres in Osage County.
After graduation from the Linn High School, Steffens found work in St. Louis often rooming with her sister, Ruth, or another girlfriend and eventually with her paternal aunt and uncle, Anna and Ray Brandriff. But, every Friday night found her traveling by bus or private car home to the country for the weekend. This practice she continued throughout her life.
As was family habit when arriving after some time away from the farm, she leaned on her horn as she rounded the curve on the gravel road to her parents’ farmhouse announcing her arrival to the family and nearby neighbors on Friday evenings.
In 1974 after several years of dating, she married Jack Steffens of St. Louis, who was murdered in 1987 by a disgruntled employee at a business he managed.
Always perfectly turned out, Steffens landed a field installation role for the National Cash Register Company. She trained store staff on retail terminals at many of their larger clients from 1961 until her 1983 retirement from the company. After retirement, she followed a former NCR boss into his specialized auditing firm and worked productively until she was 89.
When her parents died and the family farms sold, Steffens bought a small house in Mt. Sterling, next door to one cousin and across the street from another and continued her habit of spending weekends in the country. She loved cats and honored her cat with her personalized license plate.
She is survived by niece, Carol Miller and husband George Thacher Guernsey IV; and many cousins and family friends.
Memorial services will be held Wednesday, Dec. 27, at 11 a.m., at Ortmann-Stipanovich Funeral Home, 12444 Olive Boulevard, St. Louis, with burial at 1 p.m. the next day, Dec. 28, at Ebenezer Ryors United Church of Christ, Ryors.
Memorials suggested to the Friendship Village Chesterfield Employee Fund, 15201 Olive Blvd., St. Louis, 63017, or to Annie’s Hope, Suite 104, 1333 West Lockwood Ave., St. Louis 63122.
