Rita Elizabeth Field

Born January 21, 1928 in Rocky Ridge, Maryland, Rita was the daughter of the late Martin J. and M. Bernadette (Orndorff) Kaas, Jr. She was the wife of the late Lewis Meredith Field, who died April 17, 2004.

Mrs. Field was a member of St. Kateri Tekawitha Catholic Church in Beaumont, California and St. Joseph Catholic Church in Upland, California. Mrs. Field was a 1940 graduate of St. Joseph Catholic High School in Emmitsburg Maryland, earning her associates degree from Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, California in 1984.

After high school, Rita relocated to Seattle, Washington where she worked as a nurse’s aide and then joined the US Navy in 1952. She met and married her husband in 1954 at Memphis Naval Air Station. As a Naval military family, Rita and her husband spent 15 years at various duty stations, including stints in Tennessee, California, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and California (chronologically). Upon her husband’s retirement from the Navy in 1969, they moved to Lew’s home town of Upland, California. Rita made Upland her home until moving to Beaumont, California in 2013.

Mrs. Field is survived by her two children, John Field and his wife, Elizabeth, of Kurtistown, Hawaii, and Joseph Field and his partner, James Chagolla, of Beaumont, California. Rita also is survived by five siblings: Marie A. Stambaugh Rocky Ridge, Maryland; Corinne A. Miller, Virginia E. Althoff, Rosalie Freebee, David M. Kaas, all of Emmitsburg, Maryland; and sister-in-law Patricia (Field) Burden of Ontario, California. She was preceded in death by one brother, Robert J. Kaas and one sister, Mary Ruth (Kaas) Seidel. Rita was proud aunt to numerous nieces and nephews.

A Mass will be held 11:00 AM, Thursday, December 6, 2018 at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 877 N Campus Ave, Upland, CA. Burial will be in the Riverside National Cemetery services will be held at 1:30 PM, Thursday, December 6, 2018. The family will receive friends from 5-8 PM, Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at the Draper Memorial Chapel, 811 N. Mountain Ave., Ontario, CA. Recital of the Rosary will be at 7:00 PM. Online condolences may be made at draper-mortuary.com.