I have no idea if this has anything to do with this particular "i" vs "ie" (or "y") situation, but I can tell you that I was in third grade that year, and there was this strange fad at the time where all the girls changed to "i". It was so weird, but they all did it. All the Cindy's were now "Cindi", all the Sandy's were now "Sandi"; we even had a Billie who became "Billi". By the following year, the fad was over, and everyone was back to "ie" or "y".
Like I said, I have no idea if this was the situation with Stevi(e) or even if that fad made it out of Connecticut.
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