Ralph Andrew Steele Jr. was a successful businessman and was active in the community, but he also was remembered Saturday for his upbeat attitude and his love of his family.
Mr. Steele, 73. passed away Saturday at Riverview Nursing Home. Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Wilson & Knight Funeral Home, with visitation beginning at 9 a.m.
A native of Grenada, he graduated from Greenwood High School and Mississippi State University. In his youth, he worked as a delivery boy after school at Steele Furniture Co., which his father had started in 1952.
He worked for Southland Oil Co. in Sandersville and Baxter Laboratories in Cleveland before moving back to Greenwood in 1965. In a 2002 interview, he said his father talked him into returning to town to work at the furniture business — and he never regretted doing so.
He bought the store in 1976 and ran it until he retired in 2002. The business is now Mallette Furniture Co.
In the 2002 interview, given just before his retirement, Steele said his work had been rewarding.
"You really get to know the community better being in any kind of business, not just the furniture business," he said. "It's not like being in a big town."
He said he liked seeing customers happy.
"I like to see them 15 years later saying they still have that bedroom suite, or that they are still enjoying the furniture they bought so many years ago," he said.
Lucille Dunn Steele, his wife of 49 years, said Saturday that he was “a fine person” and “a fine Christian man.”
His daughter, Kaye Steele Schroeder, said he was a “caring and wonderful father.”
Because he was an alumnus of Mississippi State, his love of family was seriously put to the test when his daughter asked if she could attend Ole Miss.
“I think he said he might think about it for a day or two,” she said jokingly.
Ultimately, he relented and allowed his daughter to attend the Oxford-based school.
He also was a true sportsman who loved to hunt and fish. Schroeder said the family’s home in Greenwood has walls filled with trophy ducks taken over the past four decades.
Mr. Steele was active in the Greenwood Kiwanis Club and the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce and served on the Greenwood Civil Service Commission and the Leflore County American Red Cross Chapter board of directors.
Fellow Kiwanian Johnny Jennings said he always liked Mr. Steele because he was a happy man with a great smile. He was always a gentleman and was never short or impatient, Jennings said.
“You walked in his store as a salesman, you were just as important as a customer,” Jennings said.
He said Mr. Steele loved his family very much and also took an interest in others’ families.
“He was a vital part of our community, so it’s sad to lose somebody like that,” Jennings said.
Tommy Ellett, who will be a pallbearer at the funeral, said he knew Mr. Steele for 30 years, both through the furniture store and through his dealings with Deposit Guaranty and Regions Bank when Ellett worked there.
They also were members of the same Sunday school class at North Greenwood Baptist Church.
Mr. Steele had high character and “was always a valued customer and certainly a pleasant guy to deal with,” Ellett said.
