Rita Ekstrom Rita Marie Ekstrom, 87, of St. Ignace, died peacefully on Wednesday morning, June 23, at her son’s home on Boulevard Drive, where she had been living since last Thanksgiving. She had been in hospice care since the end of May.

Rita was born on January 26, 1923, in St. Ignace, to Owen and Ina McGrath (nee Weeda) of St. Ignace, one of ten children. She married Ernest “Ernie” Ekstrom of Ford River (Escanaba) in 1944. They had two sons, Maurice and Marty, born in Escanaba, Michigan. Mr. Ekstrom died in St. Ignace in December 1959 of heart disease, and Marty Ekstrom died on April 22, 2006.

Rita lived most of her life in St. Ignace, and after her husband died she worked at a number of jobs - as a short order cook, a medical supply worker, a gift shop clerk - to support her two young sons. She retired after 23 years of managing the St. Ignace Traverse Bay Woolen store in order to care for her mother in her home until her mother’s death in 1993. She developed a long-term relationship with John “Johnnie” Thibault, whom she cared for in her home for seven years until shortly before his death in 2007.

Rita will be remembered by her many relatives and friends as a vivacious, generous, creative, and quick-witted woman. She loved to go dancing as a young woman, and always enjoyed a good laugh, even when the joke was on her. She was a self-taught artist, painting mostly in oils, and illustrated her many letters to family and friends with her lively doodles. She loved to cook and garden, and was always trying out new recipes that she came across in the many cookbooks that she loved to read. She delighted in raising flowers, especially from plants given to her by her many friends. Though not blessed with material wealth until very late in life, Rita’s openhearted generosity to anyone who needed help blessed her with a wealth of love and friendship. Her modest home, first on Spruce Street and then on Burdette Street, was always open to her sons’ friends and to her brothers and sisters and their children.

She was a lifelong member of St. Ignatius Loyola church, and was especially proud of her St. Christopher’s medal that her granddaughter Britta took to Marquette to be blessed by the bishop.

Besides her husband, son, and Johnnie Thibault, Rita was preceded in death by her best friend Margaret McLeod, by her parents, Owen and Ina McGrath, and by her brothers Raymond, Owen, Maurice, and James, and her sisters Virginia, Theresa, Ruth, and Fay.

She is survived by her son Maurice, her daughter-in-law Susan (Cope), her grandson Aaron, and her granddaughter Britta Ekstrom. Also surviving is one sister, Madge Maxheimer of Fenton and many nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grand-nephews.

Burial will be at Lakeside Cemetery with her beloved husband and son. Dodson Funeral Home of St. Ignace is assisting the family with arrangements.