Rita Lois Kreycik

VERDIGRE — Funeral services for Rita Lois Kreycik, age 91, of Verdigre will be at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Osmond. Deacon Doug Tunink will officiate. Burial will be in the Riverside Cemetery in Verdigre.

Rita died Nov. 15, 2020, at Avera Creighton Care Center in Creighton.

Rita Lois Kreycik was born June 26, 1929, to James and Edith Peters Zoubek. She grew up on a farm near Verdel and attended country school District 91 for her first eight years and graduated form Niobrara High School in 1946. After graduation she taught in rural schools for three years. On Aug. 3, 1949, she was united in marriage to Emil V. Kreycik. The couple then began farming in the Pishelville area. To this union a daughter was born, Susan Marie. In 1993, Rita and Emil moved into Verdigre. They continued to make daily trips to the farm to look after the stock cattle until they sold the cattle herd in 1996 and later the farm in February of 1997. They celebrated their 50th anniversary on Aug. 3, 1999. Rita lost her best friend, the love of her life, Emil, on March 15, 2000. Rita continued to live in Verdigre until 2015 when she moved into an apartment in Osmond, to be closer to her family. Rita was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary since 1954, K.P. Homemakers since 1961 until its disbursement, the Verdel Presbyterian Church and the Verdigre and Osmond Senior Citizen Centers. In 2017, she moved to Countryside Villa in Wausa, and in 2019 she moved to Creighton Care Center. Rita enjoyed her family, grandchildren and great grandchildren, working along the side of her husband on the farm and doing yard work after moving to town. She enjoyed embroidery and baking rolls for her family. Rita helped make quilts for the wounded soldiers returning from Iraq, 150 pillow cases for the Veterans Home in Norfolk and quilts for her daughter, Susan, and grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Rita is survived by her daughter, Sue, and husband Robert Wingert; three grandchildren and their spouses, Jared and Jenny Wingert of Osmond, Kari and Jeremy Renz of Grimes, IA, and Jennifer and Aaron Kinnan of Oakdale; great-grandchildren: Caden, Jaxson, Hannah, Rylee, Owen and Asher; sister, Cleo DeKay of Michigan, nephew Lee and Colleen DeKay of Michigan, and brother and sister-in-law Marvin and Winona Kreycik of Verdigre.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband Emil, brother-in-law Arlen DeKay and Archie and Irene Kreycik.