McCoy (Lewis), Rita Marie
age 79, of Dayton, Ohio died on Saturday, January 27, 2024 in her home at Brookdale Kettering. Born in 1944 in Springfield, Ohio, she attended Belmont High School in Dayton, and graduated from Ohio University with a fine arts degree. She taught art in the Dayton public schools before travelling to Goose Bay, Labrador, to teach in the overseas dependent school program. There, she met her future husband of 52 years. They returned to Dayton, where Rita devoted herself to raising their two sons before returning to her field in education as an administrator at the Montessori School of Dayton. Rita loved to read, and she nourished a broad curiosity about the world, ranging from the wondrous to the mundane. An avid gardener, she expressed her eclectic vision in works of living art as she nurtured a picturesque panoply of diverse and beautiful little gardens. But her most sublime endeavors were spent, with limitless affection, on her family and friends. Preceded in death by her father, David Lewis; mother, Harriet Lewis; mother-in-law, Maxine McCoy; father-in-law, Walter McCoy; and sister, Reenie Blakney. Rita's memory lives on with her surviving husband, James McCoy; children, Michael and Matthew McCoy; grandchildren, Daniel and Jack McCoy and their mother, Lisa McCoy-Ford; brother-in-law, David McCoy (Christine Knisely); and sister-in-law, Ann Sulfridge (Ken). Rita's family extends special thanks to the staff at Brookdale Kettering for the community and compassion she found there; and to Hospice and Tobias Funeral Home for their compassion and support. A celebration of Rita's life will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, February 24, at St. George's Episcopal Church, 5520 Far Hills Avenue, Dayton, Ohio 45429. Rita's ashes will be buried in the St. Francis Memorial Garden. A gathering of friends will be held in the Parish Hall afterwards. Memories may be shared and condolences expressed through Tobias Funeral Home at www.dignitymemorial.com. Memorial contributions may be made to the Lions Clubs International Foundation at www.lionsclubs.org. Rita continues to tend to little gardens in the hearts of all who were blessed to know her.
McCoy, Rita
