Rita Aucoin Grant, a retired legal secretary, peacefully passed away during morning prayer at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital on August 1, 2024. She was born on May 3, 1927, in the parish of East Baton Rouge. She was married to Frederick William “Ted” Grant on June 12, 1954, at the Methodist church in Denham Springs. Rita and Ted were both active members of the First United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge for more than fifty years and longtime members of the Tharseon Bible Class.
Rita loved to cook, collect cookbooks, and experiment with new recipes. When she and Ted travelled to his military conventions, she would try to find a nice cookbook to bring home, and she would almost always bring books back as gifts. She loved making things and doing for people, and she always tried to remember birthdays of family and friends with a card or a gift.
She was a knitter at the First United Methodist Church, and she was inducted into the “Circle of Roses” in July 2015, by the Baton Rouge Garden Club. Rita was a past president of the Louisiana Art and Artists Guild, charter member of the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, member of American Legion Auxiliary Boyd Erving Unit 58, spouse member of numerous military organizations, and member of other community organizations in the Baton Rouge area. Her motto was, “The secret of living is giving.”
Rita is survived by her husband, Col. F. W. “Ted” Grant AUS-Retired and her nephews, nieces, and cousins. She was preceded in death by her parents, Joseph Leslie Aucoin and Rosa Keller Aucoin; in-laws, Fred M. Grant, Elvie Sutcliff Grant, and Lt. Boyd Sutcliff Grant; brother, Ray E. Aucoin Sr and his wife, Gloria Schoonmaker; sister, Leah Aucoin Shaffer and her husband, Eugene W. Shaffer; and nieces, Barbara Aucoin Harris and Brenda Shaffer Fairchild and her husband, James Fairchild.
A visitation for Rita will be held at Rabenhorst Funeral Home East on Monday, August 5, from 6 to 9 pm, and it will continue the next morning at 9 am until funeral service at 10. Burial will follow at Greenoaks Memorial Park.
