State of California Funeral Establishment License FD969

Ernest Rota was born in Napa, the son of Italian Immigrants.  He attended St. John’s Catholic Grammar School and graduated from Napa High School in 1942.  Like most men of his generation he enlisted in the Army Air Force.  Ernie flew 30 combat missions as the Flight Engineer of a B-24 with the 15^th Air Force, 484^th Bomb Group in Foggia, Italy.  While attending Flight School in Lincoln, Nebraska he met his wife Eloise and they were married in 1946 at St. John’s Catholic Church in Napa.  In 1947 Ernie attended the San Francisco College of Mortuary Science and became employed by the Treadway and Wigger Funeral Home in Napa.  While there he met Ed Claffey and in 1955 they began construction on their own Funeral Home.  The Claffey and Rota Funeral Home opened in 1956.  Just a few years after opening the business Ed Claffey died of a heart attack. The business has continued on for 50 years.