Official Obituary of Wilton “Jerry” Roten July 27, 1949 ~ January 11, 2024 (age 74)

Funeral services for Wilton “Jerry” Roten, 74, of Portales, will be held at 10:00 AM, Fri., Jan. 11, 2023 at the First Baptist Church with Rev. Phillip Smith officiating.  Burial will follow in the Portales Cemetery with Larry Teal, Jim Davis, Chris Duncan, Mike Howard, Ronnie Johns and Don Davis serving as pallbearers.  Mark Dillard will serve as an honorary pallbearer.

Wilton Jerry Roten, known to his friends as Jerry, was born July 27, 1949 in Memphis, TN to the home of Annie Lorraine (Dickey) and Wilton Howard Roten, and passed from this life on Jan. 11, 2023 at his home in Portales.  Jerry lived his early life in Selmer, TN.  His summers were spent helping his grandfather picking cotton.  For a time, Jerry was a bus driver.  He had also spent time in the National Guard where he worked as a recruiter.  For the majority of his working life, Jerry was a truck driver.

On Aug. 26, 1979 in Roswell, he was married to Deby Kizer.  In 1980, they moved to Amarillo, where they lived until 1984.  They lived in Lubbock from 1985 until the mid-1990’s.  Over the following few years, they lived in several places including Albuquerque, and locations in Tennessee.  In 2013 they moved to Alamogordo, NM.  They were living there when Deby died on Sept. 22, 2017.  It was after her death that Jerry moved to Portales.  He was a member of the First Baptist Church.

Jerry is survived by his son Mike Roten, a step-son Blake Cotton and a daughter, Amy Fox; his brother and sister-in-law, Neal and Judy Roten of Brownsville, TN; his sister and brother-in-law, Jane and Bill Chapman of Big Sandy, TN; and a niece, Teri Roten and a nephew, Tim Roten and his wife, Chasity of Brownsville, TN.  Besides his wife, Deby, he was also preceded in death by his parents.

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