Annette Ruth Hermann Anderson

Funeral services for Annette Ruth Hermann Anderson of Butler, Missouri will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday, November 22, 2025 at Schowengerdt Funeral Chapel (660-679-6555) in Butler. Visitation will be 5 - 7 p.m. Friday, November 21 at the Schowengerdt Chapel. Annette will be laid to rest in Oak Hill Cemetery, Butler. Online condolences www.schowengerdtchapel.com.

Annette Ruth Hermann Anderson, age 83, of Butler, Missouri, passed peacefully into God's care on Saturday, November 15, 2025, at Bates County Memorial Hospital. Born in St. Louis on March 20, 1942, to Herbert Hadley and Mildred Louise Hyatt Hermann, Annette began life as the second daughter in a family rooted in love, work, and faith.

Her early childhood carried her through the quiet streets of Ste. Genevieve before her family returned to their hometown of Butler-a place that would shape her youth and eventually welcome her home once again. She graduated from Butler High School in 1960, then ventured to the University of Missouri in Columbia. There, she met the man who would become her partner in every sense-Gary Don Anderson. They married on December 31, 1962, and together built a life filled with joy, adventure, and the rewarding work of raising six children as they made homes in Missouri, Kentucky, Colorado, and Illinois before returning to Butler for good in 1997.

Annette's greatest work was the world she created inside her home. She was the warmth in the doorway, the reassurance in a quiet look, the steady presence in every season of her family's lives. She volunteered in classrooms, comforted grandchildren, stitched gifts with her own hands, and made sure no birthday ever passed unnoticed. She drove the long miles to wrestling meets, theater shows, band competitions, and school trips–her encouragement following her children wherever they went.

She gathered people with grace-family reunions, holiday meals and Sunday afternoons on the farm. Annette loved the land–its animals, its quietness, its cycles. The farm responded to her care as if it knew her heart.

With needle and thread, Annette created beauty that lived on long after each stitch was made. Her quilts-many of them hand-pieced-wrapped her loved ones in warmth during weddings, Christmas mornings, and everyday life. Her hands crafted everything from jackets to curtains to tablecloths, each made because she saw a need and quietly filled it.

When she wasn't sewing, Annette filled her days with the gentle rituals she loved: baking, cooking, reading, and working puzzles and crosswords at the kitchen table, just as her mother had done. She tended a generous garden, coaxing life from the soil with a gift that seemed almost intuitive. She remained active with the Butler Alumni Association and was a devoted, lifelong member of Ohio Street United Methodist Church.

Annette is survived by her husband, Gary Anderson of Butler; her six children-Larry Anderson and wife Karla of Lee's Summit, Missouri; Richard Anderson and wife Margaret of Edwardsville, Illinois; Michael Anderson and wife Debi of Butler, Missouri; Ann Slayton and husband Bob of St. Louis, Missouri; Matthew Anderson of Maryville, Illinois; and Layne Anderson of Butler, Missouri-and by 11 grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents and her sister, Maretta Kelley.

As Gary offers in his simple, everlasting words:

"I will love you always."