The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Former Waitsburg resident Rita Donnelly slipped from this life Feb. 8 at the Odd Fellows Home in Walla Walla. She was born January 24, 1924 in Camden, N.J. to Polish immigrants Joseph and Margaret C. Smith. Her sister Bernice was born in December 1924. Less than two years later, Margaret was widowed for the 2nd time, leaving her with two toddlers and five older children from her first marriage. A housekeeper when the depression came, she could no longer afford to care for the two young girls still at home. In 1931 they were placed in an orphanage run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Phil...