Joseph Steineger, former KCK mayor known as ‘peacemaker’ and lifelong farmer, dies at 90
Joseph E. Steineger Jr., a lifelong farmer who earned a reputation as a “peacemaker” during his two terms as mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, died Saturday morning. He was 90.
Once a force in the local politics of his hometown, Steineger served in KCK government until shortly before the elected body dissolved to combine with Wyandotte County’s. After a political scandal influenced a bruising defeat at the polls in 1995, the former mayor returned to the full-time job of growing crops each year for harvest.
Outside of a final year in assisted living, Steineger stayed in the home he built nearly 70 years ago on seven acres along North 63rd Street.
“He had a wonderful life and it was time,” Joseph “Little Joe” E. Steineger III, the eldest of his four children, told The Star by phone Monday evening.
“Like any dirt farmer, he had pretty strong faith in our good Lord. And he was ready. So, that makes it a little bit easier for the rest of the family to accept the loss.”
Born March 7, 1934, the elder Steineger grew up in Wyandotte County and graduated from Washington High School. Two years later he married his wife Gloria, spending 45 years with her until she died in 1999.
In his political life, which spanned 40 years, Steineger worked on volunteer and elected boards. After 31 years on the Turner school board, the exodus of high school graduates in a time of steep population decline in Wyandotte County inspired him to run for mayor.
Kansas City, Kansans elected Steineger to his first term in 1987. Over eight years at the helm, the mayor witnessed triumphs in his community that included the building of the new General Motors Co. plant, the opening of the The Woodlands racetracks and receipt of the All-America City Award in 1992.
Cindy Cash, a past president of the Kansas City, Kansas Chamber of Commerce, remembered Steineger as a leader who encouraged Wyandotte County residents to band together.
She credits him with laying the groundwork for a new Unified Government of KCK and Wyandotte County by easing frictions between leaders in Edwardsville, Bonner Springs and the county commissioners.
“The three cities didn’t work together. The county didn’t work together,” Cash said. “And it was all a part of Mayor Joe just realizing: People needed to get together and find a way to work together.”
In a statement Monday, Mayor Tyrone Garner said Wyandotte County “lost a true Dotte and statesman.”
“Both personally, and professionally, he touched countless lives through dedicated community and public service,” Garner said.
Chester Owens, a Wyandotte County historian and civil rights leader who began his two-term tenure as a city councilman in 1983, served alongside Steineger.
“He was just a magnificent man,” Owens said, calling Steineger an honest person who did the best he could to “move Kansas City forward.”
Being in KCK’s top elected spot was not always picturesque for Steineger.
During his second term, his reputation was tarnished by scandal. The then-mayor was charged under federal indictment with bribery and obstruction of justice, accused of accepting $4,000 from the owner of a topless bar and instructing him to lie to a grand jury about the alleged payoff.
In 1994, a jury acquitted Steineger. His son Steineger III recalled the trial as a period of turmoil for the family — one from which his father’s political career never recovered.
In all, the elder Steineger spent about $100,000 in legal fees to defend himself.
“I told dad several times, ‘I’m proud of you as your oldest son for many, many things I’ve witnessed. But I may be the proudest because of the honesty you brought to that mayor’s office. And that you may be the only mayor that came out poorer than you went in,” his son Steineger III told The Star.
Despite his wounded public image, the elder Steineger campaigned for a third term in 1994 — in part to clear his name. He suffered a serious loss, gathering only 29% of the vote.
Former KCK Mayor Carol Marinovich, who bested Steineger that season, remembered that he promised her “a very clean” campaign — and stayed true to his word.
“And when one member of his staff didn’t take that to heart, that member of the staff ended up being fired,” Marinovich recalled.
In an interview with The Star one year after his defeat, Steineger asked The Star to tell readers that “old Joe is doing fine.”
“I feel excellent,” Steineger said in 1996. “I guess working for a living is a little different than talking on the telephone and making speeches.”
He kept on farming after his retirement from public life. In fact, Steineger III told The Star, his soybean crop is growing on a piece of land near the GM plant in Fairfax.
The younger Steineger said his wife, Jenny, asked his dad whether he wanted to risk putting the crop in beforehand.
“He looked her in the eye and he said, ‘You know me, Jenny. I’ve gotta do it. I’m a farmer,’” Steineger III said with a laugh. “It was no doubt. The risk didn’t matter to him and it never did.
“It’s funny how some things never change in a man’s life even in 90 years. And he’s so thrilled to have that crop in the ground. I think one interesting thing about dad is, he never gave it up. And I think he felt in his own heart, he couldn’t give it up. That’s who he was.”
The younger Steineger says his father kept a sharp mind in old age. And he lived by the campaign slogan he first ran on: “Together we can.”
He also stayed up to date on Wyandotte County politics, his son said, and offered to help every KCK mayor who succeeded him. Several former elected officials are expected to pay their respects this week.
“I look forward to shaking their hands and listening to what they have to say about my dad. Because I’m sure it will be sweet music in my ears,” the younger Steineger said.
An honorary motorcade procession led by the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas City, Kansas police and Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department was to take place during Steineger’s funeral services. Members of the public were invited to his visitation and funeral.
Visitation is to be held from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Maple Hill Funeral Home, 3300 Shawnee Drive, Kansas City, Kansas. Funeral services begin 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Paul Episcopal Church, 1300 N. 18th St., Kansas City, Kansas.
