Birth date: Nov 26, 1925 Death date: Jul 9, 2008
LETTELLEIR, Rilla (Cox), 82 formerly of St. Petersburg, died Wednesday (July 9, 2008) in York, PA. She was born in Bloomington, Ind., and came to FL in 1947. Wife of the late Robert B. Lettelleir, she participated in operating the Read Obituary
The staff of the Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery extend their heartfelt condolences.
Mom,
I was so blessed to have you as my Mother. I'm so thankful for the 45 years I had you in my life.
I will miss you terribly.
Rilla was truely a wonderful mother to me and I will always love her.
Mom,
You have given your family and friends so much more than any Mother could have been asked to give ' our lives, your grandchildren's lives and all of those you touched are forever more enriched. What you have done for your family, your neighbors, your friends, and strangers is most impressive. Below is something our Mother wrote of her life in 1999. Written in her own works and typed by hand (not on a computer) for a project being completed in her home tome of Bloomington, Indiana. The project was being completed by her niece's daughter Suzanne . . . I hope you enjoy getting to know my mother a bit better from the information she writes of herself. Especially notice how she completed her letter. I think you will see how wise, thoughtful and perceptive Mom was ' . . .today, I found a note in her purse from my Dad in his own handwriting saying ' I love you Rilla ' Bob Mom's final writing was to be a wedding wish to her granddaughter Jennifer wishing her well but stressing her grand relationship with our Dad working as a 'team' We will plant a Rilla Louise TREE this summer for Mom and hope that many will be able to visit the tree in the future to pause, reflect and share an insightful but thoughtful quite moment with Rilla Louise.
= = = = = = = = = = My grandmother, Mary Frances Hendrix. Was a twin. Her brother and his wife were killed in a buggy accident when their children (3 boys) were all under 12. Her husband had already died of opium poisoning which was the medication used at the time. She had 3 sons. She was a cook at I.U. When my Dad died after a lingering mastoid illness, Gram and Mother lived together to raise the 3 girls. Bertie was a reporter for the Bloomington Herald. Frances was a secretary of J.P. O'Donnell an attorney. Bertie and I rode our bicycles to Chicago once. What a trip. You don't really notice how many up-hills there are until you ride a bike several hundred miles. We girls sang and I danced at Lodge parties, Business conventions and a duty they had to threaten to spank me each time, was to sing at funerals. They'd always have me stand at the head of the casket for I was so little I couldn't be seen over the casket, and there'd I be singing the saddest of songs looking in the casket. One day it was a little girl, who my Mother was very good friends with the grandmother of the little girl. She was just my age, beautiful red hair and looked like a doll lying there. Her name was "Rosalie" and that was what her Grandmother wanted me to sing. Bertie and Frances and I were to sing a hymn, then I was to sing "Roalie" Well, I finished that o.k. but as soon as it was down so I could slip away I went out a side door and ran all the way home from Bedford no, some other town a bit closer to home. Anyway I didn't tell my sisters I was going. So they are out at a cematary looking for me, then back to the church looking for me, then everywhere between. You can imagine how they felt going home and knowing they would have to tell Mother they lost me. Well, when they got home Gram and I were eating fudge and placing checkers. Bertie chased me with a newspaper rolled up for half an hour saving she'd beat me till I couldn't sit down. Luckily she never caught me and by then Mother was home from work and saw the humor in the whole mess and everyone laughed and forgot to punish me!! I was the baby and I got away with a lot of stuff. I don't remember my Dad, I think I was three when he dies, or maybe 2, no 3, but he had a tire shop for bicycles and then cars when they came out. He also bred bloodhounds which he trained and sold to law officers around the state. There was always a lot of music at our house. Gram had a Jews harp, piano, guitar, and mandolin and then when your Granddad came into the family he bought his fiddle. Sunday nights all summer long, cousins with their guitars and Gram also "played" the spoons, but EVERYONE sang whether they could carry a tune or not, but most were good and everyone seemed to know harmony. One cousin, I think Bob White, no, he played harmonica, well some boy and I took turns danc
Dear Mom, I was so blessed not only to have the wonderful pleasure to grow up with you as a youth, but also to have had loving time with you as an adult. You helped make our home so very special in Maryland and for a short time in Pennsylvania. I will always remember you as a "spit fire"... tiny but full of energy, opinions, and most of all love for family and friends. You taught your children through example...how to care for one another and how to enjoy life! Give Dad and Tommy a hug for us and please, please look down and send out prayers to your porch buddy,"Tommy" as he and I need your prayers. I'll be talking with you from the sunroom each and every day! Love, Laurie and Tommy
I am so thankful to have had such a wonderful woman as a role model in my life. Always full of life and not afraid to try new things. Granny surely mastered the balance of being a very strong and capable woman with the knidest most giving heart anyone could ever have. I will miss her tremendously...but, will honor her by keeping her spirit alive and well in my life and heart every day.
Goodbye Aunt Rilla
Hannah, my heart and prayers go out to all of you. It is so hard to loose your parents, but you will always have such wonderful memories to carry with you. Your mother was a wonderful woman that raised wonderful loving children. What an honor to say that I know the Lettelleir family. May God grant you much peace in the days to come.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this very sad moment.
My thoughts are with your family during this time of grief. I know there is room in Heaven for someone as lively as Ms. Rilla.
