Willard Steele

Willard Gene Steele, 75, of Casa Grande died on March 15, 2015, in Phoenix.

Visitation will be from 6 p.m. to midnight Thursday at Native Christian Fellowship Church in Casa Grande. The funeral there will be at 7 a.m. Friday. Burial will be in Florence Cemetery.

Mr. Steele was born on Jan. 3, 1940, in Whitesboro, Oklahoma. A career missionary, he traveled to 36 countries including four years in Peru, in town and the jungle. He preached on the Navajo and Apache reservations and many other places and distributed Bibles. He spoke Tohono O’odham and Spanish fluently. A man of variety, he enjoyed travel, making artistic wreaths, photography, singing and eating.

Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Betty Jane; two sons, Emmanuel Steele of Casa Grande and Juan Steele of Blackwater; two sisters, Dorothy Gann of Talihina, Oklahoma, and Jessie Puch of Oklahoma; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by two brothers, Hoyt and Herbert Steele.

J. Warren Funeral Services, Cole & Maud The Gardens Chapel is in charge of arrangements.