The FUNERAL SERVICE for Mr. Bartz will be held at 3:00 p.m. Friday, April 23, 2021 Hill & Son Funeral Home in Appleton City, Missouri.

VISITATION will precede the service from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

The family requests that MEMORIAL donations be given to the Appleton City Cemetery Association or Heartland Hospice.

Leonard E. Bartz, age 81, passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, on April 8, 2021, from the effects of a stroke.

Leonard was born June 27, 1939 to Leonard E. and Anna Mae (Harvey) Bartz and was raised on a farm near Rockville, Missouri. His father suffered a debilitating heart attack when Leonard was a teenager so he and his siblings assumed a lot of responsibility at young ages to help out on the farm. In high school Leonard met and started dating Grace when she asked him to a Sadie Hawkins dance. He graduated high school in 1957 and attended Central Methodist College in Fayette, MO for 2 years before joining the Air Force in 1959. Leonard served for 2 years as an Electronic Countermeasures Technician on B-47 Bombers with the Strategic Air Command. He enjoyed telling stories of his training and his time spent on Air Force bases in Biloxi, Mississippi; Fairbanks, Alaska; and Wichita, Kansas.

On May 22, 1960 Leonard was united in marriage to the love of his life, Grace Elizabeth Herrman, who he fondly called, "Gracie."  Once he finished his service and Grace had graduated college they settled on a farm north of Rockville, Missouri and began their life together raising crops, livestock, and children.

Leonard never lost his love for electronics and for over 50 years was a very active member and frequent president of the Three Rivers Amateur Radio Club. He had many wonderful memories and stories of Field Day where he and other HAM radio operators set up temporary antennas and worked to contact as many other stations as possible in a 24 hour period. Field Day was always the week of his birthday so he usually celebrated it with his family and his fellow club members.

As a pork producer Leonard was active on the local and state levels of the Pork Producers Association, volunteering many hours at the Pork Place at the State Fair and the Ozark Empire Fair, as well as cooking pork burgers at the Bates County Fair. Leonard served on the Board of Directors for Producers and Texas, the livestock trade association based in the Exchange Building at the Kansas City Stockyards, as well as on the Bates County Farm Bureau board. He was also a volunteer leader in 4-H, teaching electricity and small engine mechanics.  He and Grace maintained the Pleasant Grove (Meyer) Cemetery for 35 years.

Leonard's family and friends remember him for his big, booming laugh, his love of reading, and his almost encyclopedic knowledge of almost any subject matter.

Preceding him in death were his parents, Leonard E. Bartz and Anna Mae (Harvey) Bartz; brother Phillip Bartz; sister Mary Ann (Bartz) Knight and brother in law Kenneth Knight; sister in law Mary (Herrman) Perry, nephew Brian Knight, and two grandsons, Zachary Rapp and Carson Wheatley. Surviving him are his wife, Grace Bartz; son Leonard E Bartz III and his wife Kenna (Hathorn) Bartz; daughter Christina (Bartz) Rapp and her husband Clayton Rapp; daughter Barbara (Bartz) Wheatley and her husband Darren; sister in law Patty Bartz, brother in law George Perry, numerous nieces and nephews,  7 beloved grandchildren and 5 equally beloved great grandchildren.

Leonard requested that his body be cremated and his ashes spread over "the back 40."