Rita Cross

Rita Cross

Rita Imogene "Jeannie" Cross, 61, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, March 7, 2009. After coping with an illness for nearly two years, she passed away at her home surrounded by her family.

She was born June 8, 1947, in Bethany, Ill., daughter of Darrel "Dutch" and Julia Wilkinson Pritts. She and Vernon R. Cross were married April 11, 1969, in Bethany.

She attended Bethany Elementary and Bethany High School. She graduated from John's School of Esthetics in Decatur, Ill., and owned and operated her own beauty salon in Bethany for several years. After their move to Cape Girardeau in 1974, she was a homemaker until all three of her children were in school. She worked 10 years as a sales representative for Johnson & Johnson and five years as a sales representative for Kimberly-Clarke.

Mrs. Cross was a loving and devoted wife, mother and grandmother. She will be most truly missed by those who knew and loved her. Her kind spirit and unselfish nature will never be forgotten.

Survivors include her husband; daughter, Nikki Crosnoe and husband Rex of Cape Girardeau; sons, Todd Luster and wife Lucy of Crossville, Tenn., Joshua Cross of Albermarle, N.C.; sisters, Joan Chaney of Decatur, Carolyn Austin of Bethany; three grandsons who adored her, Cooper, Gunner and Carter Crosnoe of Cape Girardeau; and her mother-in-law, Christine Cross of Hayti, Mo.

She was preceded in death by her parents.

Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday at Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

The funeral will be at 1 p.m Tuesday at the funeral home, with lay minister Jim Hicks of St. Andrew Lutheran Church leading the service.

Burial will be in Cape Memorial Park.

Memorials in her memory can be made to the American Lung Association and to Chicago's Children Memorial Hospital Neurosurgery Department.

The family would like to thank Southeast Hospice for their excellent and compassionate care.