May Rita Trulson

Rita Trulson, 97, of Merritt Island, Florida, passed away peacefully in Orange Park, Florida, on September 10, 2023, surrounded by family. Rita was born in Tilbury, Ontario, Canada. Part of her early life was on a rural farm, and she attended a one room schoolhouse for 8 years, then graduated high school at 15. She went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in medical technology. During her internship year in Kalamazoo MI, she met and married Donald J. LaBelle (Jim) and lived briefly in Milwaukee, WI. With their first child the family relocated to Melbourne, Florida where she resided until 1974. Nine more children joined the family until her husband passed away in 1963.

In 1949 she was asked to set up a lab in the small 25-bed Brevard Hospital. After the 8th child was born, she went to work for Dr. O. A. Holzer in Melbourne. In 1964, she left for a position with Pan Am at Cape Canaveral as a Medical Laboratory Technologist, eventually assuming a supervisory role over 2 clinics. She married Gordon Trulson in 1973 and retired from Pan Am in 1981. They lived in Merritt Island for the next 40 plus years and traveled the world, living life to the fullest, including a sailing trip from New Zealand to Fiji with rough seas from a typhoon. She dedicated her time in retirement volunteering with Meals on Wheels, Eucharistic Ministry, and other church activities with Divine Mercy Catholic Church in Merritt Island. She was invested as an Oblate of ST Benedict of ST Leo Abbey, Saint Leo FL in 1957.

Rita is preceded in death by her parents, Joseph and Melina Rivard, her siblings, Sylvio, Rivard, Edna Craggs and Alice Sykes, her first husband, Jim, her second husband, Gordon Trulson and four nephews.

She is survived by two siblings, Leah Fleming and John Rivard, and children James LaBelle (Peg), Mary Patricia LaBelle, John LaBelle (Charlton), Therese White (Ben), Michael LaBelle (Rene), Timothy LaBelle (Tamara), Margaret Fifield (David), Joseph LaBelle, Stephen LaBelle (Kellie), Peter LaBelle; stepson, Greg Trulson (Nancy), 14 grandchildren, and 15 great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 AM on September 23, 2023, at Divine Mercy Catholic Church in Merritt Island, FL with private interment at Florida Memorial Gardens in Rockledge FL.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Divine Mercy Catholic Church (www.divinemercychurch.org) or Haven Hospice (www.BeYourHaven.org)