Steely, Guy F.

American playwright, novelist and reporter who resided in New York and Chicago.

Guy Floyd Steely was born in Watseka, Illinois in about 1871. He married Winnifred Darrough and the couple had one son, John Darrough (1903-1991). At various times in his life, Steely lived in Oak Park, Illinois (a Chicago suburb) and in New York City. He wrote human interest stories for The Inter Ocean in Chicago from 1896 to 1900 and worked for Ringling Brothers Circus as an advance press agent during his summers. Steely also wrote numerous plays and lyrics for musicals, several of which were produced at Chicago's Dearborn Theater, and a novel, Wally: a Story of the West (1911). Two of his plays, The Storks and The Forbidden Land, were also produced in New York. Steely died in Cleveland, Ohio on April 22, 1913 after an operation to treat appendicitis and is buried in Watseka, Illinois.