Bessie "Bess" Roggenbuck

Bessie B. Roggenbuck (Bess), age 92, passed away peacefully at home on September 22, 2019 surrounded by her family.

Bess was born at home in Edison Park, IL July 26, 1927 to George Franklin and Bessie Roxana (Brooks) Smith. She graduated from Taft High School and worked at the Rawlins Radio Corporation factory during World War II where she met the love of her life, Edward O. Roggenbuck Junior (Ed).  They were married on October 15, 1946. Bess and Ed moved to Pensacola Beach in 1956 and to Gulf Breeze in 1963.  Bess worked for the Borgward car dealership in Pensacola where she met her dear friend, Lenora Frye, with whom she later owned the Gulf Breeze Dress Shop.  Later in life she and her daughter owned The Tea Cart gift store in Gulf Breeze.

Bess had a traveling spirit and when Ed retired from Southern Prestressed Concrete they began traveling all around our beloved country and in Europe for the summers from 1987 to 2004. Bess chronicled all their trips and family photos in albums dating back to the 1940s. She was an artist and also tech savvy (her grandchildren call her their “techno gram”) and she made birthday cards and family calendars on her computer for many, many years. Never idle, Bess crocheted, knitted and took up quilting in the 1990s, making afghans and quilts for every family and friends’ special occasions. She loved all types of games and her greatest joys were a family card game and watching Cubs baseball. Among her other interests was the Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church where she served since the 1950s as a secretary to several of the pastors, as a counselor for the MYF and participated in the music program, both chancel and hand bell choirs.  She was a member of the Pensacola Beach Woman’s Club, Princess Purple Dawn of the Mayo Ki Indians in 1963, a longtime member of the Gulf Breeze Ladies Bowling League and a Red Cross Volunteer at Baptist Hospital.  Bess has a loving family to carry on her legacy - her beloved husband Ed; her daughters Susan Diane Roggenbuck (Blaine) Fritz of Reston VA and Marsha Ann Roggenbuck (Al) Garza of Gulf Breeze; her grandchildren, Sue Ann Long (Chad) Pope of New Port Richey FL; Stacy Kay Long of Sterling VA; Anthony Edward (Tony) Garza of Gulf Breeze, Melissa Ann R. Garza of Duluth MN, and Lisa Miller (Greg) Watts of North Canton OH; her great grandchildren, Carmen Zeta Garza of Tucson AZ, Anthony Edward Garza Junior (AJ) of Gulf Breeze, Alfred Carl Garza IV of North Canton OH, Jackson Alexander Garza of Gulf Breeze and Bailey Lauren Taranto of Sterling VA.

Bess will be joining her loved ones in heaven; her parents, her beloved brother George Smith killed in WWII, her brother Elbert Smith, her cousin Jean C. MacNeil, her son Edward Oscar Roggenbuck III (Skip) and her grandsons Edward Oscar Roggenbuck IV (Sonny) and Alfred Carl Garza III, and her sweet poodle Buffie.

Visitation will be at Rose Lawn Funeral Home, Monday, September 23rd from 5:00 to 7:00 PM and the funeral service on Tuesday, September 24th, 1:00 PM at Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church.  Following the service there will be a private family burial.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to the music program at the Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church (www.GBUMC.org).