Rita Anne Smith 1923-2011

BLOM STERLING SMITH

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 8/24/2012 at 12:36:36

Sioux City Journal
June 09, 2011

Rita Anne Smith, 87, of Sioux City passed away Tuesday, June 7, 2011, at a local care facility, comforted by family.

Services will be 10 a.m. Friday at Mayflower Congregational Church, with Pastor Dan Lozer officiating. Burial will be at a later date in Logan Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present at 6 p.m. and a prayer service at 7 p.m., at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel. Online condolences may be posted at www.meyerbroschapels.com.

Rita was born Nov. 5, 1923, in Sioux City to Robert and Ruth (Blom) Sterling. She graduated from Central High School with the class of 1943 before working with the phone company on the air base.

Rita moved to California in 1945, and married Louis H. Smith on April 6, 1947, in Yuma, Ariz.

She enjoyed being a homemaker, but when her husband passed away in 1968, Rita moved herself and four of her five children back to Sioux City, where she continued to raise her family and entered the workforce. She worked at JCPenney, was a teacher's assistance at Clark School, worked at Ben Franklin when it was across from St. Luke's Hospital and worked in the lunchroom at Hoover School. Rita was a loving and caring mother and grandmother, always giving of herself and willing to help when needed. She was a past member of the "Girls of ‘68," enjoyed giving to the Meals-On-Wheels program and volunteered at St. Luke's for the heart clinics. She was a member of Mayflower Congregational Church.

Survivors include her five children, Ruth Scattaglia and her significant other, Marvin Lammers, Trish Barber and her husband, Randy, Stewart Smith and Scott Smith, all of Sioux City, and Penni Hernandez and her husband, Robert of Saugus, Calif; two sisters, Irma Brandner and her husband, Phil of Eagle River, Wis., and Hope Britson of Marshalltown, Iowa; grandchildren, Tony and Kari Scattaglia, Andy and Matthew Thompson, Chase, Blake and Sydney Smith and Tesla, Karlie and Halley Hernandez; and four great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Lewis; brothers, Robert, Darrell and Bud Sterling; a sister, Connie Lester; a brother-in-law, William Britson; and longtime companion, Clarence Baker.