Elsie Enns Steelberg, 89, died Nov. 27, 2023, in Buhler, Kan. She was born June 8, 1934, in Newton, Kan., and grew up in Buhler, the daughter of Herman and Margaret (Reimer) Enns.

She attended Tabor College and graduated from Northwestern University in 1956. She graduated from Northwestern Medical School in 1960 and completed her anesthesiology residency in 1964. She was an anesthesiologist for 13 years before going back to school for psychiatry, completing her residency in 1981 from SUMMA Health System/Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown, Ohio.

She met Donald Steelberg at an InterVarsity meeting at Northwestern in 1954. They married in Chicago in 1959 and raised four sons in Chicago, Wichita, Kan., and Wadsworth, Ohio.

She joined Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church in Wichita when Donald took an associate pastor position there in 1965. They moved to Wadsworth in 1968 when Donald became pastor at First Mennonite and Elsie worked at Wadsworth Rittman Hospital and Akron General Medical Center. She and Donald moved back to Wichita in 1984, where she practiced psychiatry, first with Prairie View and then in private practice, for 36 years..

An early supporter of gay marriage and LBGTQ rights, he served on the General Conference Mennonite Church’s Human Sexuality Committee from 1982 to 1987 and continued to advocate for these rights within the Mennonite church throughout her life.

She is survived by her husband, Donald; four sons, Jeremy (Caroline) of Chicago, Nelson (Nancy) of McLean, Va., Derek (Maria) of Naples, Fla., and Schuyler (Kathleen) of Cookson, Okla.; 10 grandchildren; and a sister, Ramona Binci of Conway, Ark. She was preceded in death by her parents; a sister, Margaret; and a brother, Harry.