Rita Martinelli P.M.

She was born in Woonsocket, RI on August 11, 1922 to Henry and Eva (Morin) Martinelli.

She entered the order of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary in Hudson in 1941, made her first profession in 1944 and her final profession in 1949.

She earned a bachelor's degree in music in 1963, and a master's degree in education in 1971 from Rivier College in Nashua. She did post-graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

Sr. Rita taught in parochial elementary schools in Rhode Island at Albion, Coventry, W. Warwick and Woonsocket; and in New Hampshire at Berlin, Cascade, Presentation of Mary Academy in Hudson and Sacred Heart in Manchester. She also was local superior and principal at St. Ambrose in Albion, St. Joseph in Woonsocket and St. Joseph in Berlin. In retirement, she tutored at PMA Academy.

She was nominated and honored for five consecutive years in the "Who's Who Among American Teachers" for excellence in teaching. In 2005, she was listed as a "Leading Educator of the World" by the International Biographical Center in Cambridge, England.

The family includes three brothers, Louis, Ernest and Leo Martinelli, and two sisters, Beatrice Desilets and Lorraine St. John all of Blackstone, MA; a cousin, Sr. Marie Joanna, P.M. of Methuen, MA; and cousins, nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Tuesday, September 6, 2011 in the chapel of St. Marie Residence. Burial will be in Presentation of Mary Cemetery, Hudson

Lambert Funeral Home & Crematory, Manchester, assisted with arrangements.