LAUREL LOUISE STEELY-OLIVERA

1933 - 2025

Laurel Steely-Olivera was born Laurel Louise Kerr on October 2, 1933 in Stockton, California. Her parents were Tom and Evelyn Kerr of Clements, California. She attended Clements Grammar School, graduated from Lodi High School, then graduated from San Jose State College with a B.A. in General Elementary Education.
Laurel was an enthusiastic and dedicated schoolteacher for 35 years, mostly kindergarten, in Clements, Lockeford and Lodi. She taught her students' children and their children after that. She continued to tutor children after she retired.
In 1955 she married her high school sweetheart Edwin Steely. They built their own home in Clements where they lived for most of their 49 year marriage. Her son Craig Steely was born in 1964 and her grandson Zane Steely in 2003. Towards the end of Edwin's life they lived briefly in Lockeford. After Edwin passed away in 2004 she married Norbert Olivera and enjoyed life on his ranch in Clements for 19 years before he passed away in 2024. She lived the last year of her life in Lodi at Brookdale and passed away September 26, 2025 at the same St. Joseph's Hospital in Stockton where she was born.
She is survived by her son Craig Steely, daughter-in-law Cathy Liu, grandson Zane Steely, her niece Joann Barbero, nephew Mark Steely and their children and grandchildren, her cousins Don Thompson, Richard Thompson and Tom Hencmann and their children and grandchildren.
Services for Laurel will be held at St. Joachim's Catholic Church in Lockeford on Monday, October 6 at 10:00am. Burial service to follow at Glenview Cemetery in Clements at 11:30am, with a reception at Clements School at 12:30pm.