Rita M. Deslauriers, 92, passed away peacefully at her home in Woonsocket, Thursday morning, July 28, 2016. She was the wife of the late Emile Deslauriers whom she married in St. Ann’s Church on April 12, 1947. Born in Woonsocket, she was a daughter of the late Medor and Eva (Remillard) Belanger. She worked at various textile mills in Woonsocket from the age of 16 until 1965 when Rita began working with her husband at the Dunkin Donuts on Cumberland St., Woonsocket. In 1968 they became Dunkin Donut franchisees and had shops in Central Falls, RI, Attleboro, MA and Providence, RI. The couple retired in 1985 and moved to St. Petersburg, FL where they lived until Emile’s death in 2014.
Rita is survived by her five children, Lucille LaBelle and her husband Richard of Central Falls, Roger Deslauriers and his wife Robin of Barrington, Vivian Demers and her husband Richard of Norton, MA, Janet Decato and her husband Philip of Woonsocket and Diane Goyette and her late husband Ronald of Winter Haven, FL, her nephew and second son William Coutu of West Greenwich, RI, nine grandchildren, Marc and Emily Deslauriers, Keith, Dustin and Darcy Demers, Hayley Roy and Dayle Gendron, Audra and Jamie Goyette, and four great-grandchildren, Charlotte and Cormac Demers, Mackenzie Brennan and Corinne Hill.
A funeral mass will be held Thursday at 10:00 am in St. Agatha’s Church, Joffre Ave. Woonsocket. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, PO Box 1000 Dept. 142, Memphis, TN 38101-9908 or www.stjude.org in her memory would be appreciated.