Rosetta Mary Shelledy

Rosie was born August 2, 1933, on the family farm in Orchard, Iowa to her parents Walter George Wetter and Selma Rosetta (Johnson) Wetter. She was the youngest of four children, joining her siblings: Jeanette, Marvin, and Russell Wetter.

As a child, Rosie worked the fields alongside her father, cultivating, planting, and harvesting the crops. She ran the tractors and trucks on the farm, and she also milked the cows. Her father was good at fixing things and would often help other farmers with repairs to their equipment. This helped give Rosie a foundation for hard work, service, and constantly learning new skills. She attended schools in Orchard where she played on the basketball team and was involved in the 4H club. She was very close with her sister Jeanette, even with an 11-year age difference, and she would often help take care of Jeanette’s children. Rosie never graduated high school due to getting married young and starting her own family right away.

Rosie met Keith Frank Shelledy, of Osage, Iowa, at a dance hall in Orchard when she was 16 years old. Keith said Rosie was a good dancer and very pretty, so he wanted to get to know her. And that he did… later that year, on September 9, 1950, Rosie and Keith were married. Keith was drafted into the Army in November of 1950 and left for basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Rosetta stayed in Osage while Keith was in basic training and then joined him at Fort Eustis in Virginia after their first son Ronald was born on March 24, 1951. From there they went to Fort Story at Virginia Beach and then on to Fort Sill in Oklahoma.

Keith left the Army in November of 1952 and they returned to Osage where their second son, Monte was born on January 14, 1953. At this time, Keith worked for a plumbing and heating supply company, which moved the family to Mason City and then to Fort Dodge where their third son, Tracy was born on March 5, 1956, and then their daughter Nannette joined the family on February 26, 1958.

When Nannette started Kindergarten, Rosetta began working outside the home. She worked nights at Lutheran Hospital as a nurse’s aide. The hospital offered to pay for Rosie to go to nursing school, but she had four small children and couldn’t make that commitment. She later became employed at Sears where she worked in the paint department, the automotive department, and finally the service department. She was basically a “jack of all trades.” There wasn’t much that she couldn’t do or at least try to do. She received a lot of on-the-job training and had many skills and abilities that would serve her well throughout her career and her life. She stopped working in 1976 due to having inner ear issues that would make her dizzy.

In 1975 Rosie and Keith bought a home in Mesa, Arizona, however they did not move there right away. Their two oldest sons lived in the home until a plane crashed in the backyard, burning the house down. In late 1978 or early 1979, after the house was rebuilt, Keith & Rosie left Fort Dodge and moved into their new home in Mesa, AZ where they lived until 2002. They have moved twice since that first AZ home but have remained in Mesa.

Rosetta was an avid golfer, bowler, and garage saler. She loved crocheting, knitting, needle point, quilting, and sewing. She was very handy and could fix or build just about anything. Later in life arthritis made it too difficult for her to do many of the things she loved, but she still enjoyed playing cards, doing crosswords, putting together puzzles, and reading.

Rosie passed away on November 7, 2021, at Banner Baywood Hospital in Mesa, AZ from Covid Pneumonia.

Rosetta is survived by her husband Keith, of 71 years, her children Monte (Susan), Tracy, and Nannette. Her seven grandchildren, Scott Wilshusen, Rushele Hooper (Scott), Bradley Shelledy (Amanda), Kyle Shelledy, Sarah Nolan (Jonathan), Mikel Shelledy (Vanessa), and Rhiannon Shelledy, and her fifteen great-grandchildren (with two more on the way).

She was preceded in death by her parents, her three siblings, and her son Ronald.