Ronetta (“Roni”) passed away peacefully at home in the early morning of September 19 after a seven-month battle with stage 4 lung cancer.
Ronetta was born on July 15, 1953, in Jamesport, Missouri, to Ronald and Luetta (Gantz) Vogel. She attended Coffey School from grades 1-12. After high school graduation, she gave riding lessons and broke horses to pay her way through college at North Central Missouri College in Trenton.
Ronetta was an avid lover of animals, including horses and mules. She was a member of the Coffey Saddle Club her entire life and was on the drill team, performing during the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1966. She enjoyed working on the family farm, which included Hereford cattle, chickens, and rabbits. She also raised St. Bernard dogs, having as many as 30 in her care at one time. Her home was also a magnet for many stray dogs and cats, which she either kept or found loving homes for. Due to her love of animals, she almost became a veterinarian. In fact, the local vet told Ronetta that he’d pay her way through vet school if she’d overcome her hesitation to give shots to animals. Unfortunately, she didn’t overcome that until almost 40 years later.
Ronetta had many hobbies, including riding horses, going camping, and spending time with family, friends, and her pets. She also loved helping her brother with his woodworking and apple business, going to auctions, and collecting Western and Native American décor.
Ronetta was also a woman of many trades. She got her CDL license when she was 16 years old, and from then on, she was known by her CB handle “Ponytail”. Initially, she helped her parents run their trucking business, and later, she began driving commercially all over the country, hauling everything from grain and cattle to cars and piggy-backing trucks. She even managed her own Cummins Tool mobile sales truck and crew, traveling all over the country.
She was very excited to trade the semi cab for a desk chair close to home when she began working for Gumdrop Books. She worked there for four years until she began working as Deputy Clerk in the Daviess County Clerk Office in 2013.
In 2018, she was appointed Interim County Clerk, and after a successful campaign (you may remember her campaign mascot, the goat Mr. Pibb.), she was elected County Clerk until she retired at the end of 2022.
Until her illness, Ronetta also served on several boards including Coffey Saddle Club, Hickory Creek Cemetery, Daviess County 911, and Coffey Fire Department. Besides being a volunteer firefighter for the Coffey Fire Department, she was also the only Emergency Medical Responder for them.
Not only was Ronetta a devoted public servant and volunteer, but she was also a talented seamstress. In the 1980s, Ronetta, her mother Luetta, and a good friend Debbie opened Ludero Designs in Coffey, where they made beautiful one-of-a-kind appliqued pieces of art out of fabric and thread. Later, she used her talents to hand-make most of all her daughter’s pageant clothes.
Ronetta was a very devoted mother to Brandy and “Gamma” to Clarissa. In fact, spending time with and spoiling her beloved “Rissa” was her greatest joy. She also went out of her way to make sure that Brandy always could do what she loved, which meant taking her to pageants and rabbit shows all over the country.
Ronetta will be sorely missed by all who loved her. She is survived by her daughter Brandy (Cody Hobbs), granddaughter Clarissa, brothers Ricky Vogel and Dave Mabe (Joyce), cousins Randy (Robin) and Roger (Yilma) Vogel, and many dear lifelong friends including Jim Noble and Gayle Creighton. She is preceded in death by her father Ronald, her mother Luetta, and her cousin Ronald Gene.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, September 23, at 11 a.m. at Roberson Funeral Home in Bethany, MO. Burial will follow at Hickory Creek Cemetery in Jameson, MO. The family will receive friends from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hickory Creek Cemetery in care of Roberson Funeral Home, PO Box 46, Bethany, MO 64424.
