Sister Rita Mae Rabitoy grew up in Gladstone, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She had two sisters and two brothers. Her sisters became nurses like their mother, but Sister Rita Mae chose another path.

Rita Mae was a babysitter for her neighbors, the LeClaire family. It just so happened that the LeClaire’s had two daughters – Sister Margaret and Sister Noel – who were School Sisters of St. Francis. Inspired by their example, Rita Mae decided to follow them to the convent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

She left Gladstone right after eighth grade in 1948 and joined other girls in the Aspirancy. Following the Postulancy, Rita Mae received the name Mathia at reception, but she returned to her baptismal name when that was possible.

As the need for sisters was very great at that time, she was sent out to work. Her grandmother and mother had taught her a lot when it came to cooking, so Sister Rita Mae was sent to Winsted, Minnesota, as the convent’s homemaker. She continued her homemaking career in convents in New York, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Illinois.

In 1972, she was sent to St. William Retirement Center in Chicago, where 21 sisters enjoyed her cooking. Sister Rita Mae liked her time there, though she found it hard to cook meals for such a large number of sisters with only one other sister to work with her. 

For fun, Sister Rita Mae enjoyed driving and taking trips. She especially liked going to Chicago Cubs games with Sister Rose Mack. Sister Rita Mae was a Cubs fan until the day she died.

In 1985, Sister Rita Mae began cooking for the priests at Our Lady of Ransom Rectory in Chicago. She spent 20 years spoiling the priests there. On every Holy Thursday, in a nod to Passover, she made lamb chops for their dinner. They certainly missed her when she retired.

Retirement came for Sister Rita Mae in 2006 at St. Cyprian Convent in River Grove, but with retirement came lots of cookie baking. She and Sister Louise Noesen baked many different kinds of cookies for the Fall Festival at the Milwaukee motherhouse. After a brief rest, they would begin baking many more different kinds of cookies for the St. Cyprian Parish cookie walk.

In these last years of her life, Sister Rita Mae especially enjoyed playing Bingo with the other retired sisters at Sacred Heart Convent in Milwaukee.

Sister Rita Mae, thank you for blessing us with your living among us as School Sisters of St. Francis.  May you now enjoy the fullness of God’s eternal banquet in heaven.