Rita Emily Fish

Rita was born as Rita Emily Igl.on June 22, 1941 in Antigo, WI. Her parents, Joe and Emily were dairy farmers. Rita had four brothers and two sisters. Since they lived on a farm, the boys worked the farm and Rita took care of the younger kids and did a lot of the cooking. She was a wonderful cook.

She graduated from Antigo high school in 1958. She later met Herman Fish who was stationed in the Air Force in Antigo. They married on March 19, 1960. They were stationed different places over the years and while in Turkey in 1964 they brought into the world their first daughter, Kathryn. While in Michigan in 1967 their second daughter Kelly was born. In 1970 they were stationed in Aurora, CO where Rita has resided ever since.

When her kids were growing up Rita was a brownie troop leader and was always a “room mother” while they were in elementary school –which means that she baked cookies and cakes and cupcakes and brought them to the classrooms for every holiday party-which back those days there were a lot of.

When her grandson Kevin was born in 1985 he was the love of her life. She would take him to Wisconsin with her on occasion so that her family there could love him and spoil him as well. She always made rice krispie dinosaurs and Christmas trees or cupcakes for his school parties too. After Kevin was married and living in Iowa she drove 10 hours to take him his dog, Juggalo and his snake! She was deathly afraid of snakes so she had the snake ride in the very back of the van with his tank covered in a blanket so that she wouldn’t have to see it!

Rita was kind hearted and would do anything for anybody in need. She gave to many, many charities over the years. She always said that if she could make a difference in somebody’s life then she would. Rita loved everyone. She always had a kind word for strangers and family alike.

She sold Tupperware for a few years and then got into selling Avon. She loved her job so much that she sold Avon until the day that she died. She sold for a total of 39 years! She was not just any Avon lady either. She earned many honors and achievements thru Avon including being in the “Presidents Club”, “Rose Circle” and ”Honors Society”. These are achieved though amount of sales. Most of her customers were customers that she had for over 30 years or more.

Kathy introduced Rita to karaoke shortly after Herman died in 2002. Rita was hooked from day one. She would go sing karaoke faithfully every Tuesday and Thursday at the neighborhood bar, once a month at TREA and any other opportunities that came up. Boy could she sing some Patsy Cline! She was known for singing “The Pussycat Song”. That was her signature song.

She also loved to travel and did so whenever and wherever she could. She went to Hawaii, Mexico, Alaska and the Holy Lands to name a few and went to Iowa and Wisconsin to visit family as often as possible.

Rita also loved going to garage sales and she knew how to find the best deals. Rita loved beautiful things and surrounded herself with things such as flowers, antiques and angels. She has angels all over her house, in every room. We will cherish the angels that she has left behind. Rita is now with Jesus and the angels in heaven. She will be missed by many.