Growing up in Detroit during the Depression, Florence D. Rotter, 77, saw her mother running an illegal speakeasy of sorts from their home to support her children after their father died in 1936. “On Sunday mornings when she would go to church, there would be all these people lying around the living room,” said Mrs. Rotter’s daughter, Mary Fullerton. Mrs. Rotter’s mother soon found more conventional work, as a waitress and cook. Mrs. Rotter died of heart failure Saturday, Feb. 7, in her home in Park Ridge, her residence since 1962. After her 1945 graduation from East Catholic High School in Detroit, she did bookkeeping for Reconstruction Finance Corp. After several years she moved to the Small Business Bureau, where she did bookkeeping work through the 1950s. She met her husband, Maurice Rotter, a traveling auditor, when he stopped by her Detroit office. They got married in 1961, setting up a home in Park Ridge the following year. A homemaker, Mrs. Rotter enjoyed being scorekeeper for her son’s baseball teams. Her husband died in 1999. In addition to her daughter, survivors include a son, Stephen, and two granddaughters. Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in Nelson Funeral Home, 820 Talcott Rd., Park Ridge. A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday in Mary Seat of Wisdom church, 920 W. Granville Ave., Park Ridge.
