Sarah Juanita Rains

Long time Estes Park resident and business woman Nita Rains died at her home Tuesday April 7, 2020. She was 96 years old. Sarah Juanita Iglehart was born September 2, 1923 in Stanley, KY, on a tobacco farm with no electricity or indoor plumbing. Her parents were Eugene and Ethyl (Forrester) Iglehart. She graduated from Daviess County High School. She served her country in the U.S. Navy Waves from 1943-1945, during which time she trained as an Air Traffic Controller in Atlanta, GA. On November 2, 1945 she married Wilson H. Rains in Atlanta, GA. The couple met in the chow line while he was on KP duty. After being discharged, they moved to Dallas in 1952. After Wilson’s death in 1971, Nita became a sales rep for Pioneer General Life Insurance Company. In 1986 she moved to Estes Park, CO where she was Vice President and Operations Manager for Rains Transportation until her retirement in 2005. Nita had been a charter member of Northway Baptist Church in Dallas, was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Eastern Star and the American Legion. Nita was an avid water skier and fisherman. She is survived by her son Wilson H. (Hank) Rains, of Estes Park, CO, daughter Sharon Dedat and husband John of Floyds Knob, IN, 9 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren and 1 great, great grandchild and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Wilson, daughter Lynda Rains-Donnithorne, granddaughter Tori Rains-Wedan and great grandsons Mason, Hunter and Austin. Nita’s cremated remains will be interred with her husband and daughter in Sunshine Valley, New Mexico at a later date.