Vern Riggert

RAYMORE, Mo. – Vernon Ernest Riggert, a longtime member of the Belton business community, died Saturday afternoon, Aug. 10, 2013, at the Kansas City Hospice House in Kansas City, Mo. He was 87.

Vern was born Aug. 3, 1926, in Hanover, Kan., to Adolph H. and Christina (True) Riggert. The youngest of four children, he was raised in numerous towns in northeast Kansas. He started school at age 5 in a one-room schoolhouse in Emmons, Kan., a town which no longer exists. He worked as a paperboy in Horton, Kan., and later as a soda jerk in Holton, Kan., where he graduated from high school at age 15 and went to work for a local drug store. His family moved to Topeka, Kan., in 1943, and Vern joined the U.S. Navy in August of the next year. At the time of his honorable discharge two years later, he had earned the rank of third-class aviation ordinance man and had spent much of his time flying shore patrol along the northwestern United States coast. Vern then returned home to Topeka and earned his bachelor of business administration from Washburn University.

A man who never knew a stranger and who made himself at home in almost any environment, Vern later worked in sales for a series of tire companies, including Fisk-Gillette; U.S. Rubber Co., which later became Uniroyal; and Dayton Tire & Rubber Co. In July 1971, he moved back to the Kansas City area and opened his own tire and automotive service company, Riggert Tire Co., in the Cass County suburb of Belton, Mo. He moved his store from a location next door to the Bank of Belton on Main Street to a new location he had custom-built in 1977 at the northwest corner of 58 and Y highways in Belton, a building that now is home to the Cass County Eye Care Center. Vern was well-known for his generosity, often staying far beyond normal business hours to help customers and even giving them tires or services on an IOU basis. Vern closed the store in 1987 but, not content to retire, he went to work selling automotive service equipment throughout western Missouri for the Marvel Equipment Co. and then Ser-Tech Co., both of Raymore, Mo. Around 2000, he went to work with his longtime friend Roy Chamberlain at Collision Plus in Raymore. He later worked for the Cass County juvenile office and, in 2005, went to work as an associate for The Home Depot in Belton, where he still was working full-time until being forced to take medical leave in March 2013. He was a lifetime member of the Ray-Pec Sunrise Optimist Club, which he joined in the mid-1980s.

Vern and his wife, Joyce A. (Little) Riggert, were married Dec. 28, 1965, at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Overland Park, Kan., after meeting five months earlier on a blind date arranged by one of Vern’s work colleagues and neighbors. They subsequently moved to Millard, Neb.; Joplin, Mo.; and Des Moines, Iowa, before returning to Kansas City in July 1971. They moved in July 1974 to a house they had custom-built in the Silver Lake subdivision in Raymore, which remains the family home and which reflects many years of their landscaping work.

Vern is survived by his wife Joyce; his son, Tad W. Riggert and wife Teri of Kansas City, Kan.; his daughter, Beth S. Riggert of Columbia, Mo.; three grandchildren, Michelle R. Riggert of Belton; Chris W. Riggert and wife Shelley of Louisburg, Kan., and Brian Boro and wife Ryenne of Jacksonville, Fla.; and two great-granddaughters, Alyssa R. Riggert of Belton; and Daysi A. Riggert of Louisburg. He was preceded in death by his parents; brother Raymond Riggert and wife Mildred; brother A.H. “Bill” Riggert and wife Bernice; and sister Edna (Riggert) West and husband Marion “Pete” West.

Visitation is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, and the funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 16, both at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 5901 E. 135th St. in Grandview, where Vern and his wife are members. The burial, which will be private, will be in the Belton Cemetery. The McGilley and George Funeral Home in Grandview is handling the arrangements. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to the Kansas City Hospice House, 12000 Wornall Rd., Kansas City, Mo., 64145, or the Ray-Pec Sunrise Optimist Club, P.O. Box 513, Raymore, Mo., 64083. Condolences may be left at www.mcgilleygeorgegrandview.com