Lionel Speidel

Radio broadcaster Lionel Dean Speidel, 84, died Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, at St. Louis University Medical Center after being injured in a pedestrian accident an hour earlier near his former home. He was formerly of Cape Girardeau.

He was crossing the street at Virginia and Chippewa when he was struck by a car and severely injured.

Speidel was born June 27, 1925, in Seattle to Walter and Maude Speidel.

The family later moved to Missouri, where he grew up in St. Louis and Piedmont. His only sibling was a younger brother, Wayne, who died at age 3 following a childhood illness.

Speidel was educated at Roosevelt High School in St. Louis and at St. Louis University. He got interested in radio at age 14 and soon became a ham radio operator. While teaching radio engineering at a technical school in St. Louis, he met the late Jerome B. Zimmer of Cape Girardeau. The two became business partners, opening first a radio and television retail/repair business in Cape Girardeau. They later founded and operated several radio stations in Southeast Missouri including KDEX in Dexter and KZYM and KFMP in Cape Girardeau. Later he established Continental Communications in St. Louis, dealing in broadcasting equipment sales. He was still operating this business at the time of his death.

Speidel accepted Christ as his savior in his early teens and was baptized with his father at Carondelet Baptist Church, St. Louis. In his 20s he met his future wife, Edna Baseler, at Jewell Baptist Church, St. Louis. They were married in 1952 in Cape Girardeau.

He is survived by three daughters, Ruth A. Odell of Colorado Springs, Colo., Joan M. Brown of Overland Park, Kan.; Mary E. Speidel of Hollywood, Fla.; the mother of his daughters, Edna Baseler Speidel; two granddaughters, Monica Odell Wilkinson of Beaufort, S.C., Carrie Odell Anderson of Orange City, Iowa; three great-granddaughters; two great-grandsons; two nephews; and four nieces.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Maude Qualls Speidel, formerly of Cape Girardeau; his father, and a brother.

The family suggests memorial contributions to the American Heart Association, the Five-Star Senior Center of St. Louis or a charity of your choice.

The funeral was held last week.

Kutis Funeral Home in St. Louis was in charge of arrangements.