Brenda Kay Berry, 70, Bolivar, died at her home Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018, of a strong but broken heart, complicated by vascular dementia and strokes.
She was the “Brenda” of Brenda’s Café in Bolivar, a business she started in 1999 after buying out her twin brother from a café operated in the same downtown location. She continued to own the business, but retired from its operation in 2012, turning over most of those duties to her trusted and loyal sidekick, Trish Berry, and leaving the bookkeeping in the hands of her twin brother.
Survivors include her husband of 40 years, Dave, of the home; two sons and a daughter-in-law, Heath Berry, Josh Berry and wife Kim; five grandchildren, Hunter Dene, Katelyn Nicole, Benjamin Eric, Maxwell David, and Jace Douglas Berry; her twin brother Danny Ray Steinshouer and his wife Patty; and nieces, cousins and more.
She was a member of Slagle Missionary Baptist Church and was saved there at the age of 13. The family also has old roots with Sunset Missionary Baptist Church and new ones with Sentinel Missionary Baptist Church.
Brenda’s smile and friendly spirit served her well throughout a working career that began in Liberty when she was a high school freshman and continued at the famous Penguin in Bolivar, starting her sophomore year.
She would later become a secretary for Orval Davis Tire Company and then for Teters Floral Products. Later jobs were with Dean Liston, CPA, and 16 years with Dr. Lane Nutt, O.D., before eventually going into business for herself, cooking for and serving countless old and new friends.
A previous business venture for Brenda and Dave included the three-year ownership of Bolivar Bowl and Fantasy Island Arcade in downtown Bolivar, from 1979 until 1982.
She was a working mother who still found time to be all things to her sons while they were going to school and playing all kinds of ball. Wherever they were playing, she was there, only seldom to the chagrin of officials and/or coaches.
Brenda was born in Springfield as a Polk County citizen to Lester and Veta June (Wells) Steinshouer and lived here most of her life. She was a 1966 graduate of Bolivar High School, but she attended elementary schools at Morrisville and Pleasant Hope.
She developed her smile and friendly spirit throughout her early years despite the tragic death of her father when she and her brother were only five years old. Lester was killed in September 1953 in a dynamite mishap while digging post holes on the family’s farm near Sunset, southeast of Bolivar.
That tragedy forged an extra strong bond between the twins and their mother.
A short second marriage for Veta eventually took the family to Wichita, Kan. and then to Liberty before returning to Bolivar. But Veta mostly raised the kids on her own, in large part with waitress jobs at many popular eateries in and around Bolivar.
Those included her son’s establishments, Danny’s Nifty Café and On Broadway Diner, and finally Brenda’s Café. In between, she also completed a career with Teters Floral Products.
Veta made most of the clothes for the twins in their childhood, including the dress and suit worn to their father’s funeral.
Among the earliest public appearances for the infant twins was for the extremely hot July 5 dedication of the Simon Bolivar statue presented to Bolivar by the nation of Venezuela, featuring the president of that nation and President Harry S Truman.
Veta’s painful death to bone cancer in 2004 was a second tragedy, one from which Brenda never fully recovered. Hence, the broken heart as a contributing cause of death. Her own terminal issues set in while at a mother’s bedside, denying her grandchildren the full opportunity to enjoy the same bond of time her sons had enjoyed with her mother into their adulthood.
Despite the depression, strokes and dementia, her faith was firm in the belief of an eventual happy family reunion.
She was the “Brenda” of Brenda’s Café in Bolivar, a business she started in 1999 after buying out her twin brother from a café operated in the same downtown location. She continued to own the business, but retired from its operation in 2012, turning over most of those duties to her trusted and loyal sidekick, Trish Berry, and leaving the bookkeeping in the hands of her twin brother.
Survivors include her husband of 40 years, Dave, of the home; two sons and a daughter-in-law, Heath Berry, Josh Berry and wife Kim; five grandchildren, Hunter Dene, Katelyn Nicole, Benjamin Eric, Maxwell David, and Jace Douglas Berry; her twin brother Danny Ray Steinshouer and his wife Patty; and nieces, cousins and more.
She was a member of Slagle Missionary Baptist Church and was saved there at the age of 13. The family also has old roots with Sunset Missionary Baptist Church and new ones with Sentinel Missionary Baptist Church.
Brenda’s smile and friendly spirit served her well throughout a working career that began in Liberty when she was a high school freshman and continued at the famous Penguin in Bolivar, starting her sophomore year.
She would later become a secretary for Orval Davis Tire Company and then for Teters Floral Products. Later jobs were with Dean Liston, CPA, and 16 years with Dr. Lane Nutt, O.D., before eventually going into business for herself, cooking for and serving countless old and new friends.
A previous business venture for Brenda and Dave included the three-year ownership of Bolivar Bowl and Fantasy Island Arcade in downtown Bolivar, from 1979 until 1982.
She was a working mother who still found time to be all things to her sons while they were going to school and playing all kinds of ball. Wherever they were playing, she was there, only seldom to the chagrin of officials and/or coaches.
Brenda was born in Springfield as a Polk County citizen to Lester and Veta June (Wells) Steinshouer and lived here most of her life. She was a 1966 graduate of Bolivar High School, but she attended elementary schools at Morrisville and Pleasant Hope.
She developed her smile and friendly spirit throughout her early years despite the tragic death of her father when she and her brother were only five years old. Lester was killed in September 1953 in a dynamite mishap while digging post holes on the family’s farm near Sunset, southeast of Bolivar.
That tragedy forged an extra strong bond between the twins and their mother.
A short second marriage for Veta eventually took the family to Wichita, Kan. and then to Liberty before returning to Bolivar. But Veta mostly raised the kids on her own, in large part with waitress jobs at many popular eateries in and around Bolivar.
Those included her son’s establishments, Danny’s Nifty Café and On Broadway Diner, and finally Brenda’s Café. In between, she also completed a career with Teters Floral Products.
Veta made most of the clothes for the twins in their childhood, including the dress and suit worn to their father’s funeral.
Among the earliest public appearances for the infant twins was for the extremely hot July 5 dedication of the Simon Bolivar statue presented to Bolivar by the nation of Venezuela, featuring the president of that nation and President Harry S Truman.
Veta’s painful death to bone cancer in 2004 was a second tragedy, one from which Brenda never fully recovered. Hence, the broken heart as a contributing cause of death. Her own terminal issues set in while at a mother’s bedside, denying her grandchildren the full opportunity to enjoy the same bond of time her sons had enjoyed with her mother into their adulthood.
Despite the depression, strokes and dementia, her faith was firm in the belief of an eventual happy family reunion.
Brenda Kay Berry, 70, Bolivar, died at her home Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018, of a strong but broken heart, complicated by vascular dementia and strokes.
She was the “Brenda” of Brenda’s Café in Bolivar, a business she started in 1999 after buying out her twin brother from a café operated in the same downtown location. She continued to own the business, but retired from its operation in 2012, turning over most of those duties to her trusted and loyal sidekick, Trish Berry, and leaving the bookkeeping in the hands of her twin brother.
Survivors include her husband of 40 years, Dave, of the home; two sons and a daughter-in-law, Heath Berry, Josh Berry and wife Kim; five grandchildren, Hunter Dene, Katelyn Nicole, Benjamin Eric, Maxwell David, and Jace Douglas Berry; her twin brother Danny Ray Steinshouer and his wife Patty; and nieces, cousins and more.
She was a member of Slagle Missionary Baptist Church and was saved there at the age of 13. The family also has old roots with Sunset Missionary Baptist Church and new ones with Sentinel Missionary Baptist Church.
Brenda’s smile and friendly spirit served her well throughout a working career that began in Liberty when she was a high school freshman and continued at the famous Penguin in Bolivar, starting her sophomore year.
She would later become a secretary for Orval Davis Tire Company and then for Teters Floral Products. Later jobs were with Dean Liston, CPA, and 16 years with Dr. Lane Nutt, O.D., before eventually going into business for herself, cooking for and serving countless old and new friends.
A previous business venture for Brenda and Dave included the three-year ownership of Bolivar Bowl and Fantasy Island Arcade in downtown Bolivar, from 1979 until 1982.
She was a working mother who still found time to be all things to her sons while they were going to school and playing all kinds of ball. Wherever they were playing, she was there, only seldom to the chagrin of officials and/or coaches.
Brenda was born in Springfield as a Polk County citizen to Lester and Veta June (Wells) Steinshouer and lived here most of her life. She was a 1966 graduate of Bolivar High School, but she attended elementary schools at Morrisville and Pleasant Hope.
She developed her smile and friendly spirit throughout her early years despite the tragic death of her father when she and her brother were only five years old. Lester was killed in September 1953 in a dynamite mishap while digging post holes on the family’s farm near Sunset, southeast of Bolivar.
That tragedy forged an extra strong bond between the twins and their mother.
A short second marriage for Veta eventually took the family to Wichita, Kan. and then to Liberty before returning to Bolivar. But Veta mostly raised the kids on her own, in large part with waitress jobs at many popular eateries in and around Bolivar.
Those included her son’s establishments, Danny’s Nifty Café and On Broadway Diner, and finally Brenda’s Café. In between, she also completed a career with Teters Floral Products.
Veta made most of the clothes for the twins in their childhood, including the dress and suit worn to their father’s funeral.
Among the earliest public appearances for the infant twins was for the extremely hot July 5 dedication of the Simon Bolivar statue presented to Bolivar by the nation of Venezuela, featuring the president of that nation and President Harry S Truman.
Veta’s painful death to bone cancer in 2004 was a second tragedy, one from which Brenda never fully recovered. Hence, the broken heart as a contributing cause of death. Her own terminal issues set in while at a mother’s bedside, denying her grandchildren the full opportunity to enjoy the same bond of time her sons had enjoyed with her mother into their adulthood.
Despite the depression, strokes and dementia, her faith was firm in the belief of an eventual happy family reunion.
She was the “Brenda” of Brenda’s Café in Bolivar, a business she started in 1999 after buying out her twin brother from a café operated in the same downtown location. She continued to own the business, but retired from its operation in 2012, turning over most of those duties to her trusted and loyal sidekick, Trish Berry, and leaving the bookkeeping in the hands of her twin brother.
Survivors include her husband of 40 years, Dave, of the home; two sons and a daughter-in-law, Heath Berry, Josh Berry and wife Kim; five grandchildren, Hunter Dene, Katelyn Nicole, Benjamin Eric, Maxwell David, and Jace Douglas Berry; her twin brother Danny Ray Steinshouer and his wife Patty; and nieces, cousins and more.
She was a member of Slagle Missionary Baptist Church and was saved there at the age of 13. The family also has old roots with Sunset Missionary Baptist Church and new ones with Sentinel Missionary Baptist Church.
Brenda’s smile and friendly spirit served her well throughout a working career that began in Liberty when she was a high school freshman and continued at the famous Penguin in Bolivar, starting her sophomore year.
She would later become a secretary for Orval Davis Tire Company and then for Teters Floral Products. Later jobs were with Dean Liston, CPA, and 16 years with Dr. Lane Nutt, O.D., before eventually going into business for herself, cooking for and serving countless old and new friends.
A previous business venture for Brenda and Dave included the three-year ownership of Bolivar Bowl and Fantasy Island Arcade in downtown Bolivar, from 1979 until 1982.
She was a working mother who still found time to be all things to her sons while they were going to school and playing all kinds of ball. Wherever they were playing, she was there, only seldom to the chagrin of officials and/or coaches.
Brenda was born in Springfield as a Polk County citizen to Lester and Veta June (Wells) Steinshouer and lived here most of her life. She was a 1966 graduate of Bolivar High School, but she attended elementary schools at Morrisville and Pleasant Hope.
She developed her smile and friendly spirit throughout her early years despite the tragic death of her father when she and her brother were only five years old. Lester was killed in September 1953 in a dynamite mishap while digging post holes on the family’s farm near Sunset, southeast of Bolivar.
That tragedy forged an extra strong bond between the twins and their mother.
A short second marriage for Veta eventually took the family to Wichita, Kan. and then to Liberty before returning to Bolivar. But Veta mostly raised the kids on her own, in large part with waitress jobs at many popular eateries in and around Bolivar.
Those included her son’s establishments, Danny’s Nifty Café and On Broadway Diner, and finally Brenda’s Café. In between, she also completed a career with Teters Floral Products.
Veta made most of the clothes for the twins in their childhood, including the dress and suit worn to their father’s funeral.
Among the earliest public appearances for the infant twins was for the extremely hot July 5 dedication of the Simon Bolivar statue presented to Bolivar by the nation of Venezuela, featuring the president of that nation and President Harry S Truman.
Veta’s painful death to bone cancer in 2004 was a second tragedy, one from which Brenda never fully recovered. Hence, the broken heart as a contributing cause of death. Her own terminal issues set in while at a mother’s bedside, denying her grandchildren the full opportunity to enjoy the same bond of time her sons had enjoyed with her mother into their adulthood.
Despite the depression, strokes and dementia, her faith was firm in the belief of an eventual happy family reunion.
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- Find a Grave Berry or Steinshouer
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