Rita Mary Kavanaugh, 94, of Slate Park Drive, Alexandria Bay, passed away on June 14, 2015 in Beulaville, North Carolina, where her daughter Patricia resides.
Rita was born on December 13, 1920 in Syracuse, NY, the daughter of the late Thomas J. and Edna Pontin Condon. She graduated from St. Anthony of Padua High School in Syracuse. She married J. Donald “Pat” Kavanaugh at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Syracuse on October 5, 1940. He passed away in August of 2008.
She was a secretary for the Syracuse Board of Education and a Homemaker. She loved to read, watch the ships go by on the river with her late husband “Pat” and enjoyed spending time with her family. She enjoyed summer visitors at the bay, winter visitors in Florida, her nieces and nephews, and was a natural at spoiling her six grandchildren. She was a very attentive grandmother and could keep up with the growing grandchildren playing catch, bowling and golf. She would make a liverwurst sandwich that a five year old could love. Her last few years were spent in North Carolina with her daughter Patty and Patty’s husband Steve who called her “sweetie” and always joked about how they would eat up the sweets later together while watching the tube. She was fortunate to meet and regularly Skype with her seven great grandchildren. Rita and Patty shared a birthday, and this past December, her six grandchildren flew south and spent it with her. How lucky!
Rita is survived by her daughter, Patricia Anne (Murphy) Bousquet and her husband Steve Bousquet of Beulaville, NC, her sister, Mary E. and husband Jack Clancy, brother, James Condon, six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews. Rita was predeceased by her three brothers Herbert, Thomas and Robert Condon, her beloved husband J. Donald Kavanaugh and her son-in-law John Leo Murphy.
A funeral mass will be held on Friday, June 26, 2015 at 11:30 at St. Cyril’s Catholic Church, Alexandria Bay, with Fr. Douglas Comstock officiating. Burial will follow at St. Cyril’s Cemetery.
Arrangements are with Costello Funeral Service, Alexandria Bay, NY.