Margaret Irene Upton Ritz

Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Funeral services for Margaret Irene Upton Ritz, of Brookhaven, are 11 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 23, 2013, at Riverwood Family Funeral Service with burial in Easthaven Baptist Church Cemetery.

Visitation is from 5 till 9 p.m. tonight at the funeral home.

Margaret Irene Upton Ritz, 90, died Sept. 20, 2013. She was born on April 21, 1923.

She was a retired LPN. She was a member of Bogue Chitto Assembly of God Church. She loved Jesus! She lived her life by example to everyone she came in contact with. She taught Sunday School and was always faithful to her church.

During her life, she worked at Kellwood Manufacturing, King’s Daughters Medical Center, Cartwheel Nursing Home, Pine Crest Nursing Home and as a private duty nurse. She also volunteered at the Lawrence County Outreach Ministry.

She was preceded in death by her parents, George and Alice Upton; her husband, Vernon Evan Ritz; daughter, Virginia “Ginger” Etheridge; sisters, Bethel Johnson and Ida Hampton; brothers, G.W. Upton and Claude Earl Upton; grandchildren, Kim Ritz and Daniel Ritz; and great-great-grandson, Tyler Matthew Jones.

Survivors include her sons, Vernon Keith Ritz and wife, Peggy, and Lindell Ritz; daughters, Sharon Ritz Brackett, Judy Ritz Boutwell and husband Maxie and June Margaret Ritz; her brother, the Rev. Joel F. Upton; grandchildren, Irene Sparks, Margaret Ann Russell, Greg Russell, Vicky Bergman, Rhonda Smith, Peggy Ritz Stephenson, Kendall Boutwell, Allesa Green, Kristina Ready, Alice Roberts and Shane Prather; 26 great-grandchildren; 17 great-great-grandchildren; and two great-great-great-grandchildren.