Mrs Elizabeth Roop Steele

Elizabeth (Diddy) Roop Steele, our grandmother, mother, sister, aunt, and friend, passed away Monday, July 28, 2025. She was one hundred years old. Her sister-in-law, Bobbie Roop and niece, Emily Sullivan, were with her throughout her last day; Emily was present at the time of her passing. Having certainty in her faith, Diddy was both deeply present in her daily life and content regardless of her life's circumstances. Philippians 4:11b-13…for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Diddy was born March 2, 1925, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Marshall Clayton and Sara Merritt Roop. She was a Baltimorean to her core. As a girl she attended camp each summer on the Magothy River. She graduated from Eastern High School in 1943, and then graduated from Goucher College with a degree in biology in 1947. She was a member of Alpha Gamma Delta and kept in touch with sorority sisters until she was the only one left. After graduation she worked for a year as a research lab assistant, research that was funded by the American Cancer Society. On October 16, 1948, she married Robert Ligon Steele, Jr., a graduate of Johns Hopkins working for Bethlehem Steel. He had been in the Army in World War II and in Japan during the military occupation. A little over a year and half later he was called up as an Army Reservist to serve in Korea. Diddy travelled to Fort Carson in Colorado with him, living there until he went overseas. She returned by car to Baltimore, driving across the county in a snow storm in the days before the interstate system was built. Once he returned from Korea she had four children in the next five years, for a while at least two of us could have been in diapers at any one time. For the next decade she raised us in the row house off of Loch Raven Boulevard, while Dad worked shift work at the mill. She was the constant in our lives. In 1964 the family moved to Valparaiso, Indiana, when Dad was transferred there by Bethlehem Steel to build and help run the new Burns Harbor Plant. Without complaint she left her beloved Baltimore and created a new life for all of us. She was a den mother and a Sunday school teacher; she and Dad cooked and served meals at the Methodist Church, and after he retired, they served Meals on wheels. She had a large number of new friends and every Friday they played bridge. Forty years after leaving Baltimore Diddy and Bob returned to live in the Blakehurst retirement community. For the last twenty years of her life she lived happily at Blakehurst, joined there by friends, cousins, and sorority sisters. Family came to see her. Bob died nine years before she did. She sometimes talked about what "we thought," as if she were still with him. Diddy is survived by three of her children, Bob (wife Liz and daughters Evangeline and Lizzie), Cathy (husband Tom), and David (wife Susan and children David and Lauren with her husband Sean) sister Sally, sisters-in-law Bobbie and Kitty, and many nieces, nephews, and great nieces and nephews. Her son, Craig, who was always so close to her, died a few years before she did. She was also predeceased by her husband, brother and brother-in-law, as well as her parents and many other friends and family. She lived a long and wonderful life. May we all learn to drink from that same deep well of contentment that she did. A service was held at Hunt's Memorial United Methodist Church on August 24th in Baltimore, Maryland, followed by a graveside service held at Druid Ridge Cemetery, ending with a luncheon at Hunt's Memorial. In lieu of flowers memorials in Elizabeth Steele's name may be made to the Blakehurst Employee Scholarship Fund, 1055 W. Joppa Rd, Towson, MD 21204.

Mrs Elizabeth Roop Steele

March 2, 1925 - July 28, 2025