Louise F. Steeble, 98, local Red Cross official

Louise Fisher Steeble, 98, a former regional American Red Cross nursing official, died of a cerebrovascular accident Sunday, March 27, at Southampton Estates in Southampton, Bucks County, where she had lived for 20 years.

From 1967 to 1977, Mrs. Steeble was director of nursing and health programs for the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the Red Cross, her son Robert said.

She was chairman of the chapter's Service to Military Families program. In 1979-80, she was board chairman of the Eastern Montgomery County chapter.

Mrs. Steeble began her Red Cross career as a volunteer in 1948, teaching courses in home nursing and baby care for the Eastern Delaware County chapter.

Born in Nokomis, Va., she moved to Baltimore to live with an aunt and uncle after her mother died when she was 6.

Mrs. Steeble graduated from the nursing school at Maryland General Hospital in 1934. From 1935 through 1937, she worked at what is now Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, and during that time she became night nursing supervisor in its surgical unit.

She studied ward management at Columbia University in the summers of 1936 and 1937, her son said, and did postgraduate work in obstetric nursing in 1937-38 at the former Philadelphia Lying-In Charity and Nurse Society, which later merged into Pennsylvania Hospital.

When Mrs. Steeble moved her family to Philadelphia, she worked in nursing at Hahnemann Hospital in 1938-40 and, after raising her children, nursed at Jeanes Hospital from 1959 to 1967.

In 1983, the Red Cross made her a member of its Clara Barton Society, her son said.

Mrs. Steeble was a member of the board of directors for the Homemakers Home-Health Aide Service of Montgomery County and health chair of the Montgomery County Federation of Women's Clubs.

Besides her son, Mrs. Steeble is survived by four grandchildren and two great-grandsons. Her husband of 41 years, Edwin P., died in 1979, and son Edwin F. died in 2009.

A memorial service was set for 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, in the auditorium of Southampton Estates, 238 E. Street Rd.