Rita Wittich Stout

Rita Stout, of Lakewood, 81, author of the recently published Love Was Not Enough, Daybreak in Odessa and Not so Small A Circle, graduated from the University of Wisconsin and started her graduate studies a year later at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. She moved to Odessa, Texas, where she taught fifth grade for the next six years. During that time Rita received her Master’s Degree from Texas A&M University in Commerce, Texas. After moving to Denver, Colorado, she sold textbooks for several major publishers and also served as board member and president of Jefferson Mental Health Foundation. She taught reading to college freshmen at the Community College of Denver. Her first book, Not so Small a Circle, chronicles her only child’s seven month battle with terminal leukemia. Rita was an accomplished musician and played with Denver Mandolin Orchestra. She will be laid to rest with her daughter Carol Baird, Husband; Kenneth, father, Walter Wittich and sister, Louis, at Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery. She is survived by step-children, Glen and Diane, step-grandchildren Kevin Stout and Jessica Stout, sister, Wendy Hayler and her five children, and her close friend, Robert Andrews.