Margaret Ritz Eades McKinney

Preceding Margaret in death were her husband of 49 years, Russell L. McKinney; second husband, Louis Ritz; parents, Alvin Quiller Eades and Helen Ball Eades; brother, Lt. Alvin James (“Jimmy”) Eades; sister, Helen Virginia (“Ginger”) Eades. Also preceding her in death was Oramay Cluthe Eades who, following the death of Helen Ball Eades, married Margaret’s father and raised Margaret as her own daughter.

Survivors include her son, James McKinney of Princeton, New Jersey; daughter, Susan Ghere of Edmond, Oklahoma; daughter-in-law, Valerie McKinney; son-in-law, Mick Ghere; numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren; brother, Dr. David C. Eades of Champaign, Illinois; many nieces and nephews including Dee Kalena and her husband Bernie.

Following graduation from Bosse High School in 1937, she graduated from Stephens College in 1939, attended for one year the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and graduated with a degree in Liberal Arts and Education in 1941 from Evansville College.

During, and for a short while after World War II, she worked as an employment interviewer for the United States Employment Service. During these years she met and married Russell L. McKinney on December 29, 1943. This union lasted for almost 50 years until Russell’s death in 1993. In October, 1997 she married Louis Ritz, to whom she was united until his death in January of 2011. In the late 1950s Margaret was a Girl Scout professional for the Raintree Girl Scout Council. In the early days of television she did a program on natural history for the Junior League with David and Katherine Bigelow on WFIE.

Margaret will be best remembered for her journalistic endeavors. Her sister, Ginger Eades, Women’s Editor of the Evansville Courier, was responsible for giving her writing opportunities on the paper and giving her first by-line. This opportunity with the paper started a 20-year career with the Sunday Courier and Press as a feature writer and columnist. During this time she authored three books: ‘Founding Families of Evansville’, ‘Footloose and Duty Free’ and ‘Fanhood in the Ace Age’. Additionally, her experiences as the travel editor for the paper took her to every continent, with the exception of Antarctica.

Over the years she served on many boards including The Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science, The Youth Foundation of Newburgh, The Newburgh Kindergarten, The Children’s Theater and Junior League for which she wrote the column ‘Beleaguered’. Boards on which she was president include The Newburgh Kindergarten, The Children’s Theater, Meals on Wheels, Raintree Girl Scout Council, Women’s Association of First Presbyterian Church and The Samuel Johnson Society.

A woman of great variety, talent and natural abilities, Margaret had many interests. Chief among them were travel, photography (she took many of her own shots for her travel articles) and reading. Her children will always remember her with a book in her hands and her keen interest in correcting their grammar. Margaret took great pleasure with her engagement in life through determination and humor, often in writing, while championing human rights, especially for women.

To her children and grandchildren she will be best remembered as the most loving mother and grandmother that life has the opportunity to bestow, and her legacy will live on in the lives of all those fortunate enough to have been influenced by her.

The children of Margaret wish to express a special recognition and appreciation to Dee Kalena and Bernie Kalena for a life-time of love, friendship, travel companionship, business engagement, and camaraderie. This was most evident in the last years of Margaret’s life as Dee Kalena was Margaret’s principal compassionate caretaker.

Services will be held at 11:00 AM Saturday, October 13, 2012 at First Presbyterian Church, 609 S.E Second St, Evansville, officiated by Pastor Wendy McCormick with private burial at 1:30 PM at Rose Hill Cemetery in Newburgh. Friends may visit Friday from 3:00 to 7:00 PM at Alexander North Chapel, 4200 Stringtown Road, Evansville.

In lieu of flowers, Margaret requested donations to the First Presbyterian Church of Evansville or the Girl Scouts of Southwest Indiana.