Rita Heid-Wilgenbusch

RITA MARY (HOSCH) HEID-WILGENBUSCH

Monticello

Rita Mary (Hosch) Heid-Wilgenbush, 98, of Monticello, died Monday, March 21, 2016, at Monticello Nursing and Rehab. Visitation will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday, March 27, at Kramer Funeral Home in Monticello. A visitation will continue from 10 to 11 a.m. Monday at Sacred Heart Church. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m., Monday, March, 28, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Monticello, with burial in St. Paul Catholic Cemetery, Worthington. The Rev. Dennis Quint will officiate.

Rita was born Oct. 31, 1917, in O'Neil, Neb., the daughter of Nicholas John and Katherine Mary (Rogers) Hosch. She married Leander Heid on Feb. 5, 1940, in Randolf, Neb. Together they had four children. He preceded her in death on Feb. 9, 1960.

She then married Tom Elmer Wilgenbusch at Sacred Heart in Monticello on Nov. 24, 1973. He preceded her in death on Feb. 25, 2003. Rita was a homemaker and helped on the farm for 25 years before she took a job at John McDonald Hospital as a nurse's aide and later food supervisor. She was a member of the Sacred Heart Parish where she would keep the flower gardens well taken care of. Rita was a volunteer at the Monticello Nursing Home, Camp Courageous, Riverside Gardens and the Lions Club. She loved to quilt and made thousands of afghans for the Linus Project and her family and friends. The Linus Project was near and dear to her heart after she went blind in 1998.

Survivors include her three children, Leo (Rosanne) Heid of Hopkinton, Jane (Gerald) Jesenovec of Farley and Mary Beth (Bruce) Clark of Monticello; Tom's children, Don (Jo-Ann) Wilgenbusch of Davenport, John (Diane) Wilgenbusch of Saginaw, Mich., and Joyce (Kathy) Dougan of Plains, Mont.; 17 grandchildren; 25 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; and in-laws, Delores Hosch of Epworth, Delores Hosch and Rosie White, both of Cascade, and Pauline Hosch of Independence.

She was preceded in death by her two husbands, Leander Heid and Tom Wilgenbusch; a baby boy in infancy; and siblings, Raphael (Helen), Herbert (Eleanor), Carl, Hilda (Luke) Leytem, Florence (Lawrence) Kelchen, Clarence, Delores (Gerald) White, Irene (Herb) Kramer, Herman, Leonard and Fred.

Memorials may be made to Iowa School for the Blind of Des Moines and Camp Courageous.

Information available and condolences accepted at www.kramerfuneral.com.