Anita Leone Stegman was born in Watervliet, Michigan on October 11, 1923. Her father, Adam Herman, died suddenly when Anita was four, and her mother moved Anita and her five siblings to Dodge City, Kansas, where there was extended family on her mother's side. Raised on a farm , Anita loved pastoral settings, the changes in the sky, and every type of cloud that passed by overhead. As a young woman, Anita earned her nursing degree at St Anthony's hospital in Dodge City. She volunteered in the ArmyCorps of Nurses during World War II. Soon after, she met and married Adam ("Al") Stegman from the nearby town of Spearville, Kansas. Together, Anita and Adam moved to Los Angles and had seven children, including a son, John, who died as a baby; and Laura, a daughter, who was killed by a drunk driver in Lompoc as she jogged during her Christmas leave from the Naval Academy in 1980.


Anita and Adam relocated to Lompoc in 1962 when Adam's new job in the missile industry brought him to Vandenberg Air Force Base. In Lompoc, they loved their neighbors, their friends, and their parish at La Purisima Catholic Church. Anita returned to her nursing vocation at Lompoc Hospital and the Convalescent Center after all her children were in school. She was an active member of Catholic Daughters, her bridge club, altar society, and the nurses' volunteer programs. She was the RN volunteer at the Grief Center, the Cancer Support Group, and in her later years, a volunteer at the Convalescent Center.


When her husband, Adam, died suddenly of a heart attack in 1997 after nearly 51 years of marriage, Anita signed up for driving lessons for the first time. She drove her beloved white Honda Accord around town, but only during daylight. What she loved most was being a mom. In 2009, her children moved her into an independent adult living apartment in Templeton, close to three of her grown children. After a year, her daughter Mary invited Anita to live with her and her family. Anita continued to ask about when she could "go home," remembering her friends, the flower fields of Lompoc, her daily mass group, and her Catholic Daughters prayer group. Even as dementia continued to set in, she never forgot to ask her children about "going home." She died peacefully at the age of 89 on March 9, 2013.


She is survived by five children, three daughters-in-law, one son-in-law, seven grandchildren, and many beloved nieces and nephews: Her son, Don, wife Jill, and children John and Ana; daughter Teri (Teresa), Natalie Martinez; son Joseph, wife Beverly; son Dave, wife Tonda, and children Adam and Amanda; and daughter Mary Martin, husband Gary, and children Sarah, Carolyn, and Lauren.


Her rosary will be recited at Starbuck-Lind Mortuary in Lompoc on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 6 p.m. A Mass of Resurrection will be celebrated at La Purisima Catholic Church at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 14. Burial will follow at Lompoc Evergreen Cemetery. Anita will finally be home again. In lieu of flowers, please honor Anita with a random act of kindness. She would love that.