Rita Arlee Churchill

Services for Rita Arlee Churchill, 85, Lawrence, will be at 11 a.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church Celebration Center with the Rev. Barb Clinger officiating. Graveside services will be at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Memorial Park Cemetery in Chanute.Mrs. Churchill died Monday, Sept. 25, 2006, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.She was born April 27, 1921, in Kansas City, Mo., the daughter of Marvin and Elfleeda Crumpley Weaver. She attended high school in Kansas City and Sapulpa, Okla. She lived in Chanute and moved to Lawrence in 1995.Mrs. Churchill, her husband and her father-in-law founded Churchill Pumping Units Inc. in 1954. She was a member of First Christian Church and a charter member of the board of Chanute’s Order of Rainbow for Girls, where she was a mother adviser. She was a member of the Hulda Parker Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, a Red Cross volunteer and Democrat Committee chairwoman, all in Chanute. She enjoyed traveling and spending time with her family.She married Jack Avery Churchill on Feb. 24, 1940, in Kansas City, Mo. He died Nov. 7, 1977.Survivors include a daughter, Jackie Hilton and husband Russell, Lawrence; two sisters, Joyce Ripple, Glenwood, Iowa, and Donna Vest, Houston; two grandchildren, Jill LaPoint and husband Mark, Lawrence, and Travis Hilton and wife Chelsea, Olathe; five great-grandchildren, Caitlin Arlee, Sophia Avery and Dominic Russell LaPoint, and Josephine Lynn and Jack Russell Hilton; and several nieces and nephews. A brother, Dan Weaver, and sister, Georgia Pierce, died earlier.The family will receive friends from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Friday at the FUMC Celebration Center.The family suggests memorials to Lawrence Audio Reader Network or The Salvation Army in Lawrence, sent in care of Penwell Gabel Mid Town Chapel, 1321 S.W. 10th St., Topeka 66604.Online condolences may be sent at www.penwellgabel.com.