Steve was carrying out his dreams when he bought the store in Los Olivos. “He loved this place,” Said Cliff Dennell, the father who raised him and watched him triumph over many obstacles in life, including Steve’s go at being in the Olympics.  An attempt that was halted by a hit and run driver in the San Bernardino area which nearly took his life in the 1980’s. “He barely made it,” said Karen Dittmare, a longtime friend and employee of Steve’s.

 

Steve was a determined cyclist, which led him to the Colorado Olympic Village for circle track. “They kept him, he was so good,” Cliff said, “Then off to Tuscon, training for the Olympics where he stayed a month and a half to two months, and they found him a national team to put him on, the Coors Light Team.”

 

“Then they took him to do a road race in Mexico and he won the damn thing, very first road race he was ever in,” Cliff said, adding that Steve had beaten the fastest Olympic team member by two-tenths time.

 

The hit and run may have stopped Steve from going to the Olympics but it did not stop him from living life to its fullest.  Those who knew Steve said he had a zest for life and loved everyone.  Steve’s motto, some say, was to “Live life to its fullest, have fun, live hard and work hard.” It appears Steve did just that.

 

It was his zest and love for people and community that made the R Country Market the most desirable place to be in town.

 

“When I first met Steve, he was riding bikes back then, and he would come and sit here on the bench [at the R Country Market]. He would just sit there every morning,” said Karen, admitting he was enjoying the view, “But I think he was also seeing how many customers were coming in, how busy we were,” she said, of meeting him not long before he purchased the Los Olivos Store.

 

Not long after Steve purchased the store he decided to start having weekly barbeques.  For those who knew him, it became a fun teasing topic.

 

“He couldn’t cook for nothing,” Karen said laughing, as she and Cliff shared stories about some of Steve’s cooking endeavors. “He tried to make soup for his son Alan one time,” Cliff said, “he emptied the can, didn’t even mix water in it. Alan told him, ‘Dad, I think something’s wrong with this soup.’”

 

Since Steve didn’t cook the weekend barbeques, held on Saturdays had become Karen’s responsibility.  When she told him she couldn’t work every Saturday, he took the initiative to seek cooking lessons from his friend Tom. He learned to cook tri-tip and “Got really good at it,” Karen and Cliff said, as they laughed, “but, not anything else.”

 

Steve loved to joke around, “He could dish it and he could take it,” said long time friend Julie Silbaugh. “Our birthdays were a day a part and neither of us were ever wrong. We were both stubborn,” she said, of them being born of Aries.

 

“He was a kidder.” Said Cliff as he and Julie reminisced and shared stories of how Steve and Julie would constantly poke fun at each other over the years.

 

“He always had a smile on his face in the morning,” said Julie Martin, friend and employee of the store.  “He was always kidding around, it was great times.  Working for Steve wasn’t like work; it was having a lot of fun.”

 

Steve’s love for people spilled into the community with his giving nature.  From helping his friend Dory during a time of illness by taking meals to her every day to participating in and assisting in organizing benefits held at his store.  The most recent was for a local woman devastated by a terrible car accident, which raised $130,000. He also would lend a hand and food to a local homeless man who had been living in his car. “Steve would give him food, and help him out, and the man would help with chores around the store once in a while,” Martin said. “Steve just wanted to help the man along. He was like that with everybody.”

 

“He was such a great man,” Martin said. “Once you came into his store he knew you, you were not just another face. He would always say ‘Hi,’ and ask how your kids were.”

 

“He loved kids,” said Cliff and Steve’s mother Cathy Dennell. “He would take them behind the register and hold them with one arm while working the register with the other.”

“It didn’t matter what age they were, he loved them, even the older ones,” Cliff said.

 

Steve’s love for his own son, Alan was evident to many as was his relationship to his mother who works at the store three days a week. “He admired her and loved her like you would always want to see a son love his mother,” said Julie, “It was a very special relationship that those two had. I admired that so much and want my boy to be like Steve was with his mom”

 

With Steve’s smile lighting up every room he ever walked in, in addition to his love for the community and every one in it, it’s no wonder that the R Country Market became “the place to be” in the Valley.

 

Although the market had become the best place for tri-tips in town, it was Steve that kept folks coming in everyday to say hello and share their daily lives with one another.

 

“This was home to him,” Cliff said, of Steve living in the Valley.

 

Purchasing the store and having his son Alan and girlfriend Helen Bejstrup at his side brought pure happiness to Steve. 

 

“He was the happiest I’ve seen him in years,” Karen said, of Steve and Helen’s relationship. “They got along so well, I’ve seen him with other girlfriends (in the past) and no one was like Helen. I was pretty sure they were going to get married,” She said, adding how well Steve, Helen and Alan got along together.

 

“You could tell they were in love,” Julie Martin said. “Helen would come into the store in the morning, get her coffee and do her thing and then Steve would walk her outside and kiss her good bye.”

 

Services to be Held

 

Steven Robert Dennell was born April 4, 1968 in Santa Maria.

He was a graduate of Saint Joseph’s High School, a resident of Los Olivos and was the owner of the R Country Market. 

Steve is survived by his mother Cathy Dennell, father Cliff Dennell, son Alan Dennell, sister Melinda Dennell-Whitely, grandparents Robert and Beverley Wheir, Grandfather Raymond Dennel, former wife Diane Dennell, Aunt Diane Alexander, girlfriend Helen Bejstrup, and numerous cousins and friends.

 

In Lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the “Steven Dennell memorial Fund” at Santa Barbara Bank and Trust. Funds will go to the Santa Maria Elks Lodge BMX Track.

 

Graveside services will be held at the Santa Maria Cemetery at 10:00 am, on Monday June 4 th.

 

A memorial service will be held at the Presbyterian Church of Santa Ynez Valley, located at the intersection of Alamo Pintado Road and Baseline at 2:00 pm on Monday June 4 th.