Rita E. (Donovan) Naughton, 101, a lifetime resident of Lawrence, died on March 28, 2014 at the Mary Immaculate Nursing Home in Lawrence.
She was born in Lawrence on May 7, 1912, to Patrick and Hannah (Collins) Donovan. She was educated at the Wetherbee Grammar School, was a graduate of Lawrence High School, and attended MacIntosh Business School in Lawrence . She worked as a dietary assistant at the Lawrence General Hospital until her retirement. She was a lifelong parishioner of St. Patrick Parish in Lawrence, and a member of Our Lady’s Sodality of St. Patrick and St. Claire League of Catholic Women, and a volunteer at the Bon Secours Hospital in Methuen.
She was the wife of the late Thomas H. Naughton, and is survived by her daughter, Mary Lou (Naughton Lawton) Maurer and her husband, Robert E. Maurer, Ph.D. of North Andover, her son Thomas J. Naughton, Ph.D., and his wife Isabel Raposo of Farmington Hills, MI, Grandchildren Michael D. and wife Susan P. Lawton of Manchester NH, Laura E. Naughton of Novi, MI, Thomas P. Naughton of Farmington Hills, MI, and Matthew B. Naughton of Los Angeles, CA, as well as two great-grandchildren, Jonathan P. Lawton and Allison J. Lawton.
She is predeceased by her six sisters: Cecelia Donovan, Mary Coleman, Katherine Hoffman, Veronica Danahy, Florence Robinson and her dearest sister and friend, Gertrude Toomey. They were all known as the seven Donovan sisters of South Lawrence.
Rita’s family wishes to express its appreciation and gratitude for the loving and compassionate care provided by The Mary Immaculate Nursing Home to our mother and grandmother.
A funeral mass will be celebrated on Thursday, April 3, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. in St. Patrick Church in Lawrence. A burial will follow at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in North Andover, MA.
Family and friends may call on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the John Breen Memorial Funeral Home, 122 Amesbury St., Lawrence, MA, 01841. For more information, or to send an online condolence, please go to: www.breenfuneralhome.com.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can made to The Cor Unum Meal Center, 118 South Broadway, Lawrence, MA. 01843.