Date of Birth:
Saturday, January 2, 1932
Date of Death:
Friday, June 1, 2012
Age:
80 years old

Lawrence “Butch” Marquette

Lawrence “Butch” (Joseph) MARQUETTE, 80, was a Dodge County farmer and a Minnesota leaderin the grain storage industry.   Born in SergeantTownship (Mower County), he died at Olmsted Medical Center (Rochester) from a massive heart attack last Friday morning, June 1.  Since the 1980s, he was a Mantorville Township (rural Kasson) resident.

He is survived by his beloved wife Marlene (Dickey, born Faribault, married West Concord 1955) of Bamber Valley in southwestRochester, and their seven children:  Morris of rural West Concord, his wife Jane (Rendler); Jacqueline “Jackie” of Rochester, her husband Richard “Rich” (Rundquist); Nancy of Owatonna, her husband Martin “Marty” (Hatfield); Steven of Tavernier, Florida, his wife Teresa; Suzanne of Boca Raton, Florida, her husband Jack (Yellen); John of Miami, his wife Fedline (Ferjuste); and David of rural Visalia, California, his partner Gilbert “Gil” (Hernandez); and his older sister Margaret “Peg” (Marquette) of Melbourne, Florida, and her son Mark.

Grandchildren include Danielle (Carter) of Rochester, her husband Michael “Mike,”parents of Butch’s two great-grandchildrenAlexander “Xander” and Estella; grandsonsJacob “Jake” (Marquette) of Owatonna, his partner Molly; Brandon (Rundquist) attending Colorado School of Mines, Golden, his partner Jackie; and Rory (Yellen) attending Grandview Prep School, Boca Raton, Florida.

Butch attended Claremont Public School through the 8^th grade.  Having lost his father William at age 11,Butch helpedhis mother Lenora (Kuhl) farm their 160 acresin Ellington Township, eventually growing it with his eldest son Morris and his wife Jane into the county’s 5^th largest, among Minnesota’s top 50 family farms.  In 1968, he started Marquette Grain Systems, constructing grain storage systems throughout the Upper Midwest.  In Byron (Olmsted County), his eldest daughter Jackie and her husband Rich grew it into one of the nation’s largest.

More than his RV trip with Marlene to Alaska, meeting President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn on the back roads of Plains, Georgia, or hiking Mississippi’s Natchez Trace and the Appalachian Trail, Butch loved his perennial Stor-mor grain bin conventions to warmer climes, on occasion with lifelong best friend Henry “Lawrence” Jante of Owatonna.  His cousin Robert “Bob” Kuhl of rural Rochester was too a best friend.He enjoyed hunting pheasant and deerin Minnesota and Wyoming and fishing at Federal Dam on Leech Lake (Minnesota).

Friends are surprised to learn of his many family vacations to Venezuela or that Butch visited his father’s ancestral hometown Marquardt, Germany, near Berlin.Butch prizedhis (late) Brittany spanielhunting dog “Coco,” a gift from his (late) older brother Edwin and his wife Mary Ann, of Okeechobee, Florida.  Butch is already missed by his gentle Shiba Inu dog “Shelby,” on permanent loan from his grandson-in-law Mike.

Butch cherished his volunteer mission workon the Black Foot Indian Reservation in Montana and administering donated medicine to children at the Mission Honduras Schoolin Flores, Honduras, plus his Papal Audience with John Paul II at Vatican City, Rome, 2005.

VISITATION:Wednesday evening 5-8PM, June 6, River Park Chapel at Macken Funeral Home, 1105 12^th Street SE, Rochester, MN  55904

FUNERAL: Thursday afternoon at 2PM, June 7, funeral mass (viewing one hour prior), Saint John the EvangelistCatholic Church, 11 4^thAvenue SW, downtown Rochester; lunch following

INTERMENT:  Saint Margaret’s Catholic Cemetery, State Highway 57 South at Cemetery Road, Mantorville

DONATION IN MEMORIAM:

Franciscan Works (Mission Honduras), P.O. Box 56007, Chicago, IL 60656franciscanworks.org

Paws & Claws Humane Society, 602 7^th Street NW, Rochester, MN 55901pawsandclaws.org

Ronald McDonald House, 850 2^nd Street SW, Rochester, MN 55902 rmhmn.org