Judy LaMotte died January 10, 2026, at 9:43 p.m. at Laclede Groves Retirement Community in St. Louis. She was 82.
Judy was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on August 14, 1943, to Fred Appenzeller and Edith (Roberts) Appenzeller. Her childhood was spent in Boone, Iowa, where she graduated from Boone High School in 1961.
She graduated from Iowa State University in 1965 with a degree in horticulture and began working shortly thereafter at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University as a Research Assistant. She later completed work for a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing at Boston University in 1972.
Returning to Iowa, in Ames she married Clifford LaMotte in 1974. Judy worked in the Botany Department of Iowa State University as a botanical illustrator. In 1985, a scientific monograph on the grasses of Costa Rica was published by the Field Museum of Chicago. She was its principal illustrator. And finally, she earned a Master of Arts from Iowa State University in 1985 in Art and Design.
Judy had a variety of interests and other skills. She was the pianist of a high school dance band. In Ames, she illustrated several children’s books. She authored, along with Hazel Gordon Appenzeller, over 7 years of work, a history of her Iowa-based family of Appenzellers: “Jacob Appenzeller. His Ancestors, Brothers, Sisters, and Descendents.”
She and Cliff moved to St. Louis in 1996. She volunteered at the Literacy Council of St. Louis, tutoring English as a second language for a Vietnamese woman, later becoming her longtime friend and mentor. Her garden became her artistic medium. In the summer of 2015, she won first place in the Vignette section of the Great Garden Contest of the St. Louis Post- Dispatch. Judy and Cliff volunteered for 7 years at Animal House, a cat shelter, socializing cats.
Mrs. LaMotte is survived by her husband Clifford of St. Louis, her stepchildren Larry (Kim) LaMotte of Wenatchee, WA, and Laurie (Dennis) Reeser of Malaga, WA, two grandchildren, Erica Nenezich and Andrea (Justin Catron-Hoesch) Harcharik of Bothell, WA, three great-grandchildren, her brother Bob (Carolyn) Appenzeller of Boone, Iowa, and her two nieces April Morgan and Julie Warner. Also by her two cats Bo and Savannah.
We will update this obituary on a future memorial gathering for Judy when final decisions have been made.