Anita Tritico

Anita Tritico, a longtime participant and patron in the Southwest Louisiana arts community, died peacefully at 12:51 a.m. Tuesday, March 22, 2011, at her Lake Charles home, surrounded by loved ones. She was 82.

A public memorial will take place at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, in McNeese State University's new performing arts theatre. Joy Pace and Brett Downer will lead the memorial. A reception in the theatre lobby will follow.

A prayer service will take place at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 24, at Hixson Funeral Home, followed by burial rites at Consolata Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 3-5 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.

Born Anita Nail on March 14, 1929, in Crawford, Texas, she was a 1945 graduate of Crawford High School. Following studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, she enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin and graduated in 1948 in communications with an emphasis in theatre arts.

In college, she was honored for radio broadcasting and was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. After graduation, she was the first president of the Delta Gamma Alumnae Association and president of Lake Charles City Panhellenic.

Popular with students, and invaluable to faculty, "Mrs. T" was a fixture on the McNeese campus for three decades. She was McNeese Theatre's production coordinator for 31 years, in charge of publicity, promotions, exhibits and receptions for university plays and musicals. She was also in charge of makeup from 1980-90. She was the longtime advisor to the McNeese chapter of Alpha Psi Omega, the national honorary theatre society. She maintained McNeese Theatre's photo archive for her entire tenure. In addition to her work duties, she continued studies of her own; from 1980-84, she was a student in the university's liberal studies program.

Tritico also had a longtime association with the Lake Charles Little Theatre, most recently as the senior member of the board of directors and, since 1980, as chairman of the Makeup Committee. Her involvement was in 1948, when she was a Makeup Committee volunteer and later, an actress, under Rosa Hart. She also was makeup chairman for the Little Theatre/Lake Charles Symphony joint productions of "Oklahoma," "Madame Butterfly" and "The Merry Widow."

Her own stage performances included the Little Theatre's "Light Up the Sky," McNeese Theatre's "U.S.A." and reader's theatre in Vienna, Austria.

Tritico's wide involvement in the local arts extended beyond theatre. She was president of the local Junior League, and the Lake Charles Symphony was formed during her leadership. She was the producer of the television production "The Wonderful World of Dance" on KPLC-TV, coordinator of the Junior League's Art Appreciation Series in local schools and the Community Arts chairman in 1958-59. Later, she served on the Junior League's Arts Council Search Committee and became a charter member of the Arts and Humanities Council, serving four terms. She also served on the board of directors of the Lake Charles Symphony, Art Associates, the Lake Charles Ballet Society and the Imperial Calcasieu Museum.

She was Southwest Louisiana 2007 Arts Patron of the Year, a Life Member of the Lake Charles Little Theatre, a Marquis designee for Who's Who of American Women and The Times of Southwest Louisiana's top "Women in Business."

Tritico was a member of the former Lake Charles Public Library Board of Trustees for a decade. She chaired the local American Red Cross fundraising campaign and the Red Cross Hurricane Audrey Clothing Center. She also served on the College Oaks Elementary School PTO board and was an appointee to the Lake Charles Beautification Committee.

She married attorney Joseph J. Tritico in 1948. He was a courtroom standout and, later, Lake Charles' federal magistrate. She was a member of the Southwest Louisiana Bar Association Auxiliary. Joe Tritico died in 1994.

In 2010, an unprecedented community campaign began to secure the naming rights for the new McNeese stage in honor of Anita and Joe Tritico.

Her survivors include two daughters, Marietta Tritico Haym of Vienna, Austria, and Annette Tritico of Lake Charles; and four grandchildren, Andrea Arceneaux and Joseph Tritico Manuel, both of Lake Charles, Dominik Haym of Vienna, Austria, and Annette Haym of Vienna and Barcelona, Spain.

Pallbearers are Greg Stratton, Mike Mayo, Joseph Frazier, Thomas A. Cole, Dave Brown, Randy Partin, John Nail and William S. Nail. Honorary pallbearers are Brett Downer and Charles McNeely.

In lieu of flowers, friends may make memorial donations to the McNeese Foundation fund to rename McNeese's new theatre for Anita and Joe Tritico. Donations may be sent to The Anita and Joe Tritico Theatre, c/o McNeese State University Foundation, P.O. Box 91989, Lake Charles, LA 70609. Checks may be made payable to the McNeese Foundation, with the note "Tritico Theatre" on the check's memo line.