In her short autobiography, Sister Mary Rita wrote: “I was born on a rural farm in Fremont, Ohio. There were seven of us children and I was in the middle. A sister and two brothers were older, and two brothers and a sister were younger.”

The year was 1930. Her parents were Eva Marie and Aloysius Omlor. Her home parish was St. Joseph in Fremont. Mary Rita attended that parish school, graduated from high school there and then entered the Sisters of St. Francis, Tiffin.

The day Sister Mary Rita came to Tiffin to meet the Sisters and see the place had to be the real test of her vocation because she was taken to meet the novices at the butcher house where they were at a “chicken party” defeathering and cleaning chickens!

Sister Mary Rita already had two relatives in the Community, an aunt, Sister Leocadia Omlor, and a cousin, Sister Laurene Toeppe.

Upon entering the novitiate in 1949, she received the name Sister Mary Jacinta. She returned to her baptismal name, however, in 1986, and has been known as Sister Mary Rita ever since. She made her first vows in 1951 and her final profession in 1954. She received her B.A. degree from Mary Manse College in Toledo and her M.A. from the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Sister Mary Rita was a prayerful, gentle, kind and compassionate person who greeted others readily with a broad smile. She loved conversation with people, had a listening heart, and especially loved children. Teaching was her passion.

To really know Sister Mary Rita, however, one must read her poetry. It has been published in a variety of magazines as well as in the Catholic Chronicle and Wheatfields. She received the Golden Poet award in 1989 and a certificate of recognition for outstanding achievement and excellence in poetry from the Famous Poets Society and she was named “Famous Poet for 1999.”

In her autobiography, Mary Rita credits Sister Sara Aldridge with sparking an ember in her that prompted her to begin writing poetry. Perhaps one poem gives some insight as to why she received a plaque for excellence in teaching in 2002 and why she loved children and teaching so much and why children loved her. The title of the poem is “Teacher, Please!”

Teacher, Please!
ENCOURAGE	We work so hard and sometimes we still don’t understand. Each of us works at a different speed. Please go over it again.
UNDERSTAND	We get tired and have a difficult time staying awake. Are you aware that a few of us come home from a baby sitter at 12:30 a.m? Many of us do not eat breakfast, either.
NOTICE	Some of us don’t have much money because our dads have lost their jobs. We still take any hand-me-downs we can get.
FORGIVE	We really don’t mean the unkind remarks we sometimes make. We are so angry about our home life and you receive our lashing out.
PRAISE	Compliments make us feel happy and important. They are needed daily.
LAUGH	Tease and joke with us. We need to see a lighter side of life. Laughter heals our hurts.
SMILE	You make us feel so good when you smile. We hear so much arguing and complaining.
TAKE TIME	Read to us. Share with us. Listen to us for we have our stories to tell.
This is an enormous request of LOVE, but we are counting on you! Remember it is difficult for us to accept disappointment.

Many children were the recipients of such love from Mary Rita as she taught at schools in Edgerton, Ft. Jennings, Bucyrus, New Washington, Toledo, Delphos Annex, Oak Harbor, and Payne.

Sister died peacefully at 5:15 p.m. on March 3, 2010, at St. Francis Home where she had been a resident since May 31, 2004.

Sister Mary Rita is survived by two brothers, Vincent (Leola) of Findlay and Charles (Agnes) Albuquerque, NM, and one sister Claire Hampshire (Richard) of Fremont. Preceding her in death were her parents, two brothers, Gerald and Bernard, and one sister Dolores Norton.