Rita Marie Recker

Rita Van Griner Recker was born on Sep 19, 1936 to Ann and Howard Van Griner in Bay City Tx. Their family moved to San Antonio in when she was six where she lived most of her life. She is preceded in death by her parents and her husband of 58 years William “Bill” Recker. She is survived by her 2 younger siblings, brother Leslie Van Griner and sister Anita Diebel and their children as well as her two daughters, Stephanie Arch and Rani Janelle Zapata, 5 grandchildren (Chelsea, Matthew, Katlyn, Shelby and Ana) and 3 great grandchildren (Lucy, Nia and Zeppelin).

Rita was an amazing and talented artist, creating wonderful fabric art, quilts and batiks.  She had so many friends and she and Bill loved to host big parties bringing everyone together. She could never sit still even when she was not as mobile in the last few years; she was always working on something – either playing sudoku or words with friends or painting watercolor cards to give away.   She loved and was loved in return by everyone she met. She loved all creatures including her beloved chihuahuas as well as the hummingbirds and baby raccoons at her home in the country where she hand fed them sardines. She even had affection for a little monkey in Cozumel who decided to give her a love bite resulting in getting the series of Rabies shots when she returned home!

Rita excelled in her Dept of Defense Civil service career at Kelly AFB where she served as a Computer Programmer in an era when women did not hold these types of jobs.

She and Bill loved to travel and were avid scuba divers in their younger years. They especially liked to travel to Mexico but also found their way to Africa, Ireland and Alaska. After Bill passed she became the traveling partner of her daughters and other friends where they traveled to Canada, Greece, Spain, Italy, Malta as well as visiting relatives in Washington state and California, Oklahoma and Florida. She was a full and endless source of joy and positivity. Even now she would not want us to mourn her loss but to celebrate her bountiful life.