Obituary: Linda Steffee

A memorial service for Linda Steffee, 52, of Houston, who died July 21, 2012, will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 14, at Christ Church of Longboat Key, Presbyterian, 6400 Gulf of Mexico Drive.
Ms. Steffee died last year after a long, hard-fought battle with cancer.

Born Jan. 4, 1960, in Philadelphia, she spent her childhood in the Midwest. After graduating a year early from Wellesley Senior High School, in Wellesley, Mass., she deferred her enrollment at Princeton University to pursue classical ballet.

At 17, she entered the American Ballet, where she met legendary choreographer George Balanchine and dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and studied under renowned prima ballerina Alexandra Danilova. After a year in New York City, she enrolled at Princeton and graduated in 1985; she later earned a master’s in architecture from Rice University in 1989.

Ms. Steffee began her career at CRS Sirrine working on major projects for clients such as Chrysler, 3M, Grumman and Carnegie Mellon University and later joined Nasr/Penton (later M. Nasr & Partners), where she worked on projects such as high-rise office buildings, department stores, shopping centers, country clubs, golf courses and private homes.

Ms. Steffee met her husband, Peter Yenne, a fellow Rice graduate, curator and freelance photographer, during one of those projects. The couple married in Key West. After the birth of their son, Julian, Ms. Steffee devoted herself to domestic life and spent many summers at her mother’s home on Longboat Key.

Ms. Steffee is remembered for her intelligence and talent; beauty, grace and sense of style; boundless energy she brought to everything she did; love of animals; and thoughtfulness and dedication to those she loved.

Ms. Steffee is survived by her husband, Peter Yenne; son, Julian; parents, Donna Garner, of Longboat Key, and Dr. William Steffee, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio; sisters Amy Chaho, of Rocky River, Ohio, and Laura Kozma, of Robbinsville, N.J.; three nieces; nephew; and beloved papillons, Max and Elise.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Christ Church of Longboat Key, Presbyterian, 6400 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key, Fla., 34228.