Peggy Steele

Peggy Myrick Steele died Wednesday, June 19, 2019 at her home in Bowling Green. The daughter of Adele Kirkland and Marion X. Myrick, she was born in Dothan, Alabama, December 14, 1935, and grew up there and in Gadsden, Alabama. She graduated in 1958 from the University of Alabama with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in music. She completed a master's in English from Murray State University in 1970, maintaining a four-point grade point average throughout her graduate program. She did additional study in music at the University of Chattanooga, 1961-64, and at Western Kentucky University, 1976-79. A natural teacher and writer, Peggy taught for many years part-time in Western's English Department, inspiring students in composition and literature classes, as well as in creative writing. She was a founder and co-editor, with her husband, Frank Steele, plus Elizabeth Oakes, of the international poetry journal Plainsong (1979-93). She founded and coordinated the Capitol Arts Writers' Group in Bowling Green, an ongoing workshop for area writers (1986-89). In the heyday of her energy came more brainy and artistic accomplishments: the fellowships to Breadloaf, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Wolf Pen Writers' Colony; a book of poems, Singing into That Fresh Light, also co-authored with Frank; invitations from other schools to do writing workshops-for example, week-long poetry workshops for the International Women Writers' Conference at Skidmore College, Saratoga, New York, each summer, 1991-93. These are just a few details of a life lived joyously and gratefully. In addition, Peggy served as an administrative convenor for Robert Bly's Conference on the Great Mother and the New Father, an annual study group that moves from place to place. In 2002, the Bowling Green Human Rights Commission selected Peggy Steele for one of its ""Women of Achievement"" awards (arts category), a fitting footnote to her career. Peggy loved walking, music, animals and the outdoors. In addition to her scholarly and intellectual life, she had a sort of baseline of quickness and depth, steadiness and humanity, about her that marked her as distinctive: a reservoir of heart-energy that drew students and friends toward her. She is survived by her husband, Frank (61 years of marriage) and her two daughters: Carolyn Steele, of Bowling Green and Nancy Reiter (Carl), of Phoenix, Arizona. A celebratory memorial service devoted to Peggy Steele's life and work will be held on Tuesday, July 2, 2019 at 2:00 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church (2033 Nashville Road, Bowling Green, Ky). All are welcome. The family has entrusted Cone Funeral Home with arrangements. You may view the and offer your condolences at www. conefuneralhome. com