Peggy Jean Wuemling Steger

Peggy Jean Wuemling Steger, age 86, went to be with the Lord on September 16, 2026, in Austin, Texas. The youngest child of Deitrich Albert Wuemling and Eda Marie Horeis Wuemling, Peggy was born on March 1", 1940, in San Angelo, Texas. She grew up in Arden, Texas along West Rocky Creek, exploring, skipping rocks and swimming with her two older sisters, Frances and Mary. Her childhood was spent on the farm milking cows, riding on the tractor with her dad, tilling and picking cotton. She graduated in 1958 from Mertzon High School and married her high school sweetheart, Robert "Bob" E.

Steger on December 27", 1958, in Mertzon, Texas. She went to work to support them while Bob finished his bachelor’s degree at Texas A&M in 1962, then his Masters in 1964 and later, his PhD at the University of Wyoming in 1970. While living in College Station, their only child, Kenneth "Ken" Wade Steger, was born in 1963. She then juggled work and motherhood, a rare feat back in those days.

They ranched in New Mexico, Wyoming and Nebraska, before returning to Texas in 1972 to ranch in Mertzon and Big Lake. During those years, she honed her skills as a hunter and was amazingly strong for her size, often killing and dressing her trophy in the field. Bob often said that she was a better shot than he and so he tried not to make her mad. She was a tough rancher woman. If it needed birthing, nursing, fixing or killing, she was up to the task. She repaired well pumps, fences, plumbing, pulled many a lamb, kid or calf, bottle fed the doggies and kept a large garden going to fill her freezers with surplus "just in case". Hard-headed and strong-willed, no task was too tough, no crawl space too small and no roof too high for her to climb up on. She was a strong woman, scared of nothing.

Peggy also had many domestic skills. She enjoyed cooking and baking, sewing and upholstering, decorating and entertaining. She would buy the Southern Living December issue each holiday season with the featured holiday dessert on the cover. She would look up the recipe inside the issue and make that dessert for our holiday gathering to such perfection that you thought it was indeed the model for the photo shoot. We hated cutting into it each year...it was too pretty to eat.

She also enjoyed hosting family events for Christmas, Thanksgiving, July 4" and Birthday-Do's, complete with desserts, garden vegetables, salads, homemade "Jail House Rolls" and Bob's BBQ goat. When the house was full of family having a good time, you could hear the roar of laughter and gab riding on the breeze from the house. It made you want to go inside and join them.

As Ken grew older, Peggy went to work for the bank in Mertzon, then for the United States of Agriculture Service in Mertzon and later in San Angelo retiring in 2005. She also enjoyed volunteering for the Mertzon Methodist Church, the Mertzon Historical Society, and the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo Craft Fair each year.

Family members who lived in the immediate vicinity contributed greatly to Peggy's vital social network for many years and left a gaping hole in her heart when they passed. These included her husband, Bob in 2021, her parents in 1964 and 1998, her aunts and uncles, particularly her Aunt Betty Hores Cathey in 1998. She is survived by son Ken Steger of Mertzon, sisters Frances Wuemling Chambliss of Portales, New Mexico, and Mary Wuemling Mauldin of Austin, Texas, brother-in-law Jim Steger and wife, Ann of Wall, Texas, as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews. The family would like to thank Brookdale Northwest Hills, St. David's Hospice of Austin and Sylvia Mauldin McMinn and her family for their loving care of Peggy in her last days.

A visitation will be held on Thursday September 24, 2026, from 5:00PM to 7:00Pm at Harper Funeral Home. A funeral service will be held at 11:00AM on Friday September 25, 2026, at the Mertzon Methodist Church, 105 W. Juanita Ave. in Mertzon, Texas with burial at Sherwood Cemetery on County Road 211 in Sherwood, Texas.

Serving as active Pallbearers:

Joe Collie,Mike McMinn,Chris Heinrich,Terry Tate

Honorary Pallbearers:

Ross Harris, John Wade Barnes

A reception will immediately follow the services at Mertzon Methodist Family Life Center.

Donations may be made to the Irion County Museum, or the Sherwood Courthouse and Cemetery Association.

Services provided by Harper Funeral Home, 2606 Southland Blvd., San Angelo, Texas.