Glenda Kay Pyle

Glenda K. Pyle entered her heavenly rest on Monday, February 17, 2025, in her room at TenderCare-Pinehurst Residential Community following the challenging decline of Parkinson’s Disease. She was 85.

Glenda was the only sister to three beloved brothers and the treasured single daughter of Samuel W. and Helen A. Steele. She was born swiftly on December 23, 1939. While on their way to the hospital in Denver, Helen cried out that they must stop immediately because the baby was coming too quickly. Samuel stopped at the first place he saw—a small liquor store in Watkins, Colorado. Tenderly carrying Helen to the house attached to the back of the store, the residents arrived at the door in nightcaps and gowns already dressed for bed. They led their vulnerable guests quickly to the bedroom, pushing aside their Christmas gifts on the bed to make room for the baby to come. Glenda arrived safely and she and her mother were driven to the hospital. Glenda often bragged she got to “room-in” with her mother before hospitals allowed it. Her entry into the world was the only thing she ever did boisterously.

Glenda spent most of her childhood growing up in Riverbend and Limon, Colorado as the daughter of a Union Pacific Railroad section foreman and homemaker and school cook. From the time she was little, Glenda loved everything about homemaking. She loved playing with dolls and pretending to be a mother. She learned to sew and won 4-H awards and a Make-it-With-Wool contest with her sewing skills. She also enjoyed baking, science, and math, so it was no wonder that she left by train from Limon, Colorado to attend Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas to get her degree in Home Economics after high school. To assuage her homesickness, she wrote letters home every day and worked hard to obtain her degree. While crying tears of frustration over an assignment at the card catalog in Meyers Library, Jack Pyle walked up to her and asked, “Prof Hayworth, huh?” and the rest was history.

Centering their household on Christ, Jack and Glenda married on April 20, 1960, over their Spring Break. They were married 58 years before she lost him. After graduating from Ottawa University in spring of 1961, Jack and Glenda moved to Evergreen, Colorado where their daughter, Annette was born, and Jack taught both fifth and sixth grades. Glenda stayed at home with the baby and subsequently three other children blessed their union—Kevin, Henry, and Valerie. While caring for their little ones, Glenda also faithfully served in their church. In June 1972, they moved to their residence in southwest Jefferson County near Littleton, Colorado. In the mid-1970s, Glenda worked part-time as a teacher’s aide at Carmody Junior High and later opened a home daycare to help put her children through college. Their Littleton home has remained cherished as the “Pyle Homestead” to this day.

Having given her life to Christ when she was fourteen years old, Glenda found great delight in serving him at home and in church. Glenda’s gifts of hospitality, service, and mercy were exemplary as she consistently welcomed the world to her home by hosting church members, family, strangers, missionaries, international students including a long-term foreign exchange student, and little children unreluctantly. She was generous in kindness offering faithful friendship to neighborhood women. Her love and grace built lifelong friendships with family and friends in every season of her life. To this day, her children can name, and cherish with love, the relationships she cultivated and maintained.

Glenda was quick-witted and her smile could melt anyone’s frown. She loved to sing hymns and listened to tapes and radio sermons of Christian pastors while she worked diligently making her home warm and friendly. She was an incredible caregiver, faithfully exemplifying love, and gentleness. She loved the downtrodden and honored her parents. She spent much of her time alone praying for others. She exemplified quiet strength and dignity.

While Glenda’s hospitable nature served her community so well, ministering to the needs of her family was always the primary calling on her heart. Her deepest desire was to see her children and her children’s children know and love God. Consequently, she was most content serving and welcoming her family into her home regularly. She absolutely loved being a grandmother to every grandchild and took great delight to welcome great-grandchildren as well. She was faithful in showering them with gifts, in providing delicious meals when the family gathered, and in loving each one. Her love consistently glorified God and honored him.

Glenda was preceded in death by her husband, Jack, her parents, Sam and Helen Steele, her brothers Wayne and Delbert, and her grandson, Joel.

She is survived by her brother, Marvin Steele of Estes Park, Colorado, her daughter Annette Tiegreen (Roger), her son, Kevin (Sharon), her son Henry (Brenda), her daughter Valerie, 15 grandchildren and their spouses, 24 great-grandchildren (with 4 more on the way,) and 3 step-great-grandchildren.

Please join us to honor the Lord in celebrating Glenda’s life on Monday, February 24, 2025, at 10:00 AM, with a prior viewing at 9:00 AM, and a luncheon to follow for friends and family at Ken Caryl Baptist Church 8395 W. Ken Caryl Ave., Littleton, CO 80128. There will be a 1:30 PM internment at Montview Cemetery, Bennett, Colorado.

Glenda’s family would especially like to thank the amazing staff at TenderCare-Pinehurst for the faithful care they provided for their mother for the past two years. They are also especially grateful for the care she received from the compassionate staff at Optimal Hospice. The tenderness Glenda received through both services was a tremendous blessing!

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to:

Gideon’s International Denver Columbine Camp P. O. Box 1742 Littleton, CO  80150-1742

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