Nancy Jane (Peck) Stueve, 82, passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family, on November 26, 2025, at the Stueve family ranch in Oakdale, California. Her death followed closely a diagnosis of incurable, metastatic breast cancer.
Nancy was born in 1943 in Los Angeles, California, to her loving parents, John and Betty Peck about the time John was serving his stint in the Army. She was raised along with her two younger sisters, Joan and Carol, in Monrovia, California. She learned the value of initiative and hard work from her parents, especially while helping them patiently build, maintain, and manage the family’s residential rental properties. Given three daughters and John and Betty’s passion for hunting, fishing, and the outdoors, Nancy grew up with an appreciation for the natural world, exposed to, and enjoying, experiences that were very often missing from the normal “creature comforts” of a suburban Southern California upbringing. Nancy learned to work hard, to “get her hands dirty” if necessary, and always to be “a good sport”.
Nancy was a cooperative child for her parents, a pal to her younger sisters, and a good student. She graduated from Monrovia High School in 1961, the first of the three sisters to also each enjoy their role as a cheerleader. She went off to college and got her degree and Elementary Teaching Credential from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
She married Lloyd Stueve in 1966, shortly after he returned from his service in the Army in Vietnam. In 1969, they moved to the Bud Hanson Ranch in Oakdale to raise dairy heifers for Lloyd’s father and uncles (the Stueve brothers) and the Southern California based Alta Dena Dairy. Throughout their lives, Nancy and Lloyd maintained important and close personal relationships with many in the Stueve brother’s very large extended family – Lloyd’s parents, brothers and sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
For 50 years Nancy and Lloyd were prominent fixtures and proud members of the Oakdale community and the agriculture/dairy industry in Central California. They raised four wonderful children on the ranch – Gage, Guy, Betsy, and Katie, all of whom still live with their families in Oakdale. Nancy and Lloyd relished and were delighted by their active role as grandparents while their four children and their spouses raised nine beautiful grandchildren. When the duties of family and farm allowed, Nancy worked as a Resource Specialist Teacher for the Oakdale Unified School District, supporting elementary age children with special needs.
Nancy was blessed and enriched by so many lasting friendships – too many to note here, but then too important to her to leave unmentioned. Some began in her childhood years in Monrovia and continued over lifetimes, many developed during her adult life in Oakdale, and some began over the last few years. She appreciated and cherished every one of those relationships. Friends, along with family, contributed to a lifetime rich in adventures, milestones, and unforgettable memories.
Nancy’s life can best be characterized and understood by recognizing her unwavering dedication, love and service to her husband, children, and family and her enduring and sustaining faith in God. Above all else, throughout her life, to the very end, she served and sacrificed, whenever necessary, for the good of her family. For all the years of duty as a dairy/rancher’s wife, through all the profound rewards and minor trials of parenting, through all the challenges of the business of agriculture, and through all the joys and the inevitable disappointments of life, she never failed to love, protect, serve, and support her family and to follow and rely on her steadfast faith in God. That was Nancy’s example, her lessons for us all, and now, her legacy.
Nancy is survived by her children and their spouses: Gage (Jenny Bandsma), Guy (Shelly Sumter), Betsy (Jake Townsend), and Katie (Sean Norman). Also surviving her are her cherished nine grandchildren, Carson, Annaliese, Madelyn, Lydia, Avery, Kade, Paige, Beau and Joule. She is also survived by her two sisters Carol Peck, Joan (Peck) Witty and her husband John, and in-laws David Stueve and his wife Sandy, Donna (Stueve) Clarke and Nancy and John Keefe.
She was preceded in death by her parents John Stuart Peck and Elizabeth Ann (Dorsey) Peck, and, four years ago, by her husband Lloyd Stueve.
A gathering to remember Nancy will be held at Marsella Family Vineyards, 13480 Orange Blossom Road in Oakdale, at noon on Saturday, January 3, 2026.
The Oakdale (Calif.) Leader
The Riverbank (Calif.) News
Dec. 17, 2025
