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Laconia-----A graveside service for Joyce G. Steady, 98, was conducted by Rev. Jonathan MacKenzie, Rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Laconia at Bayside Cemetery on September 28, 2002. She was born in West Garland, Maine, the daughter of George W. and Jane (Jackson) Gordon. She had lived in Laconia for 71 years. She died on September 5, 2002 in the Congregate Living Center at the Taylor Community where she had been a resident since 1991. She was the widow of Dr. Karl Steady, who died in 1979.
She attended Colby College. In 1924 she married Karl A. Steady and was with him in Kirksville, Missouri while he completed his medical education at the Kirksville School of Osteopathy. In 1926 they returned to Berlin, New Hampshire where he practiced until they moved to Laconia in 1931.
They loved the mountains which is where they met while working during summer vacations at a White Mountain resort. And after moving to Laconia they loved the Lakes Region. During the warmer months of the year they spent part of nearly every day at the camp on their island, Big Island, in Paugus Bay. They shared it with three succeeding generations of their family and a host of friends, who swam, fished and sailed while enjoying the warmth of an uncommon fellowship.
During her active years she had little idle time. What might have been she often spent knitting. She distributed the results widely, if quietly, throughout her family and friends, including friends she made to feel like family. Her avid interest in birds was reflected by her substantial collection of bird books, and to the end of her life her attention was arrested by the visitors to the hummingbird feeder that hung outside her window. Examples of her interest in the world around her was revealed by memberships in the Mount Washington Observatory, The Smithsonian Institute and the National Geographic Society; of her devotion to her roots, by subscriptions to Down East and Yankee magazines. All of these she continued to the end of her life.
She was a member of the Women&Mac226;s Guild of St. James Episcopal Church in Laconia, and a member of the Women&Mac226;s Guild of the Lakes Region General Hospital.
She is survived by a daughter, Jane Hood of Keene, a son, G. Gordon Steady of Laconia, 9 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren.
She was predeceased by a sister, Frances Eddy, a brother, George Gordon, and by a son, Karl A. Steady, Jr.
Memorial donations may be made to the Taylor Community, 435 Union Ave., Laconia, NH 03246 or to St. James Episcopal Church 876 North Main Street, Laconia, NH 03246. Wilkinson-Beane Funeral Home, 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia has been in charge of the arrangements.
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