Obituaries for Dec. 26, 2019

Rita B. Thomas

HALLELUJAH CANYON, Ariz.

Rita B. Thomas

Funeral services for Rita B. Thomas, 94, were held Dec. 21 at the Hallelujah Canyon Full Gospel Church in Hallelujah Canyon, Arizona. Interment followed at the Indian Wells community cemetery.

Rita was born March 15, 1925, in Keams Canyon, Arizona, into the Tsi’naajini (Black Streak Wood People Clan), born for Táchii’nii (Red Running Into the Water People Clan). Her nali is Kinlichíi’nii (Red House People); chei is K’aahanaanii (The Living Arrow). She passed away Dec. 15, 2019, in Winslow, Arizona.

Rita loved to drive fast and was a homemaker, seamstress, rug weaver, sheepherder, and horseback rider.

Rita is survived by her children, Kary Begay, Sarah Jim, Samuel Thomas, Gilbert Thomas, Ella Mae Bitsuie and Gary Cooper Thomas; brother, Steven Bahe; and stepsisters, Mary Brown and Minnie Begay.

Rita is preceded in death by her father, Slim Brown; husbands, Park Thomas and Ray Nelson; sons, Johnnie Thomas and Mark Thomas; mothers, Zonnie Grant and Bertha Thomas; sisters, Irene Yellowhair, Betty Brown, Esther Parson, Nellie Hoover and Marilyn Brown; and brothers, Jackson Yazzie, Lester Brown and Paul Brown.

Greer’s Mortuary was in charge of arrangements.