Private family gathering will be held next Spring in Darwin, Minnesota at the St. John's Catholic Cemetery.
Mary Rita Kellett, 87, of Gresham, Oregon, passed away on Wednesday morning, July 1st. Born in the Township of Rose Grove, Iowa, where her family lived and farmed until moving to Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
Bred with a strong work ethic and endless energy, she supported herself through Business College in Minneapolis and then moved out west to Portland at the age of 19. There she met and married Paul Benner and together they had 3 children. While he was frequently away due his naval duties, Mary Rita began a career in insurance claims, constantly advancing and eventually heading the Workman's Compensation Department for Gilmore Steel/Oregon Steel Corporation.
Mary Rita remarried in 1973 to Frank Kellett and they travelled extensively as well as enjoying time on their boat, the Shangri-La. They wintered in Arizona for many years and were together for 27 years before Frank's passing.
After this, she spent most of her time with her lifetime friends, Laurel Parrish and Sharon Norton. Even as Alzheimer's ravaged her mind and memories and precluded her from engaging in her lifelong passion for reading, she was still able to enjoy looking at picture books and was browsing through the Pioneers of Minnesota just before suffering a stroke on Tuesday. Mary Rita requested years ago that her ashes be laid next to her parents, Marcus and Marcella Keigan, at St. John's Cemetery in Darwin, Minnesota.
She lost her eldest son, Marcus Benner, in 2006, and is survived by her younger sister, Lucille Schermann of Winsted, Minnesota, her daughter, Jody Benner, of Gresham, and son, Michael Benner, of Portland, 3 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18