FUNERAL MASS:
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in
Montrose, Missouri on
Thursday, March 31, 2011 at
10:00 a.m.

OFFICIANTS:
Father Norman Rotert,
Father John Bolderson and
Deacon Mike Lewis

ROSARY AND VISITATION:
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in
Montrose, Missouri on
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 with
the rosary from 6:00 to 6:15 p.m. and the visitation between 6:15 and 8:00 p.m.

INTERMENT:
St. Mary's Cemetery, Montrose, Missouri

MEMORIAL:
St. Mary's School Immediate Needs Fund

John Edward Rotert, 77, son of Clem and Freda (Cook) Rotert was born on August 8, 1933 in Montrose, Missouri. He departed this life peacefully Sunday, March 27, 2011 at his home in Germantown, Missouri.

John grew up in Montrose graduating from Montrose High School in 1951 and then attending farm school for the blind in Oak Grove. On August 18, 1956 John married Elizabeth "Bettie" Gengler and together they spent three years studying cattle breeding at the University of Missouri in Columbia. They bought a small farm near Montrose and started in the cattle business with just four Angus cows.

It is said that it is not the size of the man that makes him great; it's what he stands for that makes him huge. John was a small framed man who always stood for honesty, truth and kindness. John's blindness was never a hardship for him. He could see more with his ears and heart than most ever see with their eyes. John's honesty was one of the many things he was admired for. When he gave you his word he kept it, you could feel the truthfulness in his handshakes.

As a cattleman he was one of the best. He always strived to improve the quality of the industry. Traveling a lot in previous years and literally feeling his way through the stock of others searching for better genetics led him to many friendships along the way.

John had truly reached his life-time dreams and goals as a cattleman. His innovative way of marketing cattle was the first of its kind years ago and is now common place in the cattle industry. His superior beef cattle genetics in quality as well as quantity has improved the profits for thousands of producers and hundreds of thousands of cattle. In 2010 John and Bettie were awarded the Beef Improvement Federation Pioneer Award for being most effective in the beef industry.

John loved the cattle business, but his heart was with his high school sweetheart and wife Bettie. They spent their life side by side, through thick and thin you never saw one without the other. John and Bettie were true companions in every meaning of the word. John spent more time in the last months being concerned with Bettie's health rather than his own. God now welcomes a faithful servant home, with a job well done.

John is preceded in death by his parents and grandparents. He is survived by his wife Bettie of the home; three sons, George and wife Anne, John and companion Diane, Paul and companion Anglyn; six grandchildren: Angela, Brandon, Cayla, Nathan, Jacob and Ben; one step grandson Nathan Wood; three siblings, Father Norman Rotert, Phillip Rotert and wife Jeanne, Theresa and husband Gordon Kempf; many nieces, nephews and a multitude of friends.