Robert Lee Gasque Sr., a retired Bethlehem Steel employee, died Saturday of a ruptured aneurysm at his Catonsville home. He was 84.

He retired in 1979 from Bethlehem Steel Co.'s Sparrows Point plant, where he had been a laborer for 33 years. Mr. Gasque then became a free-lance taxi driver and worked a route outside Lexington Market in downtown Baltimore. He drove shoppers home in his dark-blue Cadillac. He stopped driving a month ago.

"He had a passion for pretty cars and bought all his daughters one when they turned 16," said Gayle Epps, a daughter who lives in Catonsville. "Then later on, he started on the grandchildren. He could do anything to a car. He knew his cars well."

Born in Dillion, S.C., where he attended schools, he moved to Baltimore in the 1940s.

He married Almeda Crosland in 1935. She died in 1994.

Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at Village Baptist Church, 100 S. Hilton St., where he was a member.

Mr. Gasque also is survived by four sons, Robert L. Gasque Jr., Joe Gasque, John Wade Gasque and Donald Gasque; five other daughters, Hattie Winder, Margie Ferguson, Delorse Gasque, Francine Pierce and Kartrina Gasque; a brother, Edward Gasque; 31 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren; and 13 great-great-grandchildren, all of Baltimore.