Loretta Zellars Speed

A celebration of the life and legacy of Loretta A. Zellars Speed will be held at 1:00 PM on Saturday, 8 July 2023, at her church home, the Mount Canaan Missionary Baptist Church, located at 1666 Alston Street, Shreveport, Louisiana 71101. Officiating will be Reverend Greg Oliver, Pastor. There will also be a repast to follow the service at the Harry Blake Family Life Center adjacent to the sanctuary. Visitation will be held on Friday, 7 July 2023, at 5:30 PM at Winnfield Funeral Home, located at 3701 Hollywood Avenue in Shreveport. Following the visitation, the Shreveport Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. will host a gathering of fellowship for friends and family at the Life Development Center located at 1301 Sycamore Avenue, Shreveport, Louisiana 71103.

Ms. Speed, an Atlanta, Georgia native, passed away peacefully in the pre-dawn hours on 24 June 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she had relocated to be with her son, his wife and their three daughters in 2012. She retired after nearly 40 years as an educator in the Caddo Parish School System, touching students’ lives at Ridgewood Middle School, Lakeshore Junior High School, Southwood High School, Oak Park Elementary School, Bethune Middle School, Caddo Magnet High School, Captain Shreve High School, Green Oaks High School and Fair Park High School. Ms. Speed was also an administrator with the Upward Bound Program at Southern University, Shreveport-Bossier, an afterschool teacher with Mount Canaan Baptist Church’s Project UpLift, and a teacher and mentor for young ladies with her beloved Delta Academy. Ms. Speed was the recipient of countless local, state, regional and national awards of merit, appreciation and commendation which served as a testament to her lifelong commitment to what she truly believed had been a calling by the Lord – the shaping and development of young minds through public education and compassionate teaching, with special attention paid to African American youths.

Loretta was a faithful and devoted Life Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., having pledged and crossed in 1966 at the Delta Rho Chapter with her fourteen line-sisters at Albany State University in Albany, Georgia. She was very proud of her lifetime of “…continuous, uninterrupted active and financial” service to her dear sorority and was a dues-paying member of the Shreveport Alumnae Chapter until the day of her passing, with two terms as chapter president from 1998 - 2002.

Ms. Speed’s loving memory will be forever cherished by her one son, Kevin C. Speed (briefly known only to her as, “Annson Michael”), a criminal defense attorney in Las Vegas; his wife, Melanie, a Nurse Practitioner; their daughters: Simone, Paige and Jaden; her sisters Carol Hughes (Melvin), Phyllis Williams, Charlotte Mathis (Robert), Estella Simms and Helen Perryman; 15 nieces and nephews and a host of great-nieces, great-nephews, sorority sisters, co-workers, students, church members, and friends of all faiths and races all over the nation. Our mother, mother-in-law, “Granny,” sister, “Aunt Ann,” teacher, Soror, colleague and friend will be sorely missed.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that well-wishers make donations in honor of Loretta Z. Speed to: Shreveport Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and include as a memorandum “designate usage for Delta Academy and GEMS.”

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.palmcheyenne.com for the Zellars family.