Mrs. Rita Mae Woods

November 27, 1924 - September 9, 2018

Funeral services and Celebration of Life for Mrs. Rita Mae Kennedy Woods, 93, will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, September 15, 2018 at Hawthorn Funeral Home with Dr. Jeffrey Dowdy officiating. Burial will follow in Waldrop Cemetery under the direction of Hawthorn Funeral Home. Visitation will precede the service on Saturday from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the funeral home. Rita Mae Kennedy Woods was born November 27, 1924, in Camp County, TX. She was the fourth of eleven children born to James Dee and Odessa Reynolds Kennedy. She passed from this life to her Heavenly reward on September 9, 2018. Rita started school in a 2-room schoolhouse in the community of Hopewell, Franklin County, Texas. In 1936, the family moved to Delta County, then later relocated in Lamar County. She graduated from Midway High School in 1942 as salutatorian of her class and attended Paris Junior College. In the summer of 1943, Rita moved to Houston where she worked in the machine shop office of Dickson Gun Plant, a division of Hughes Tool Co. The company made heavy artillery gun barrels for use in World War II. She also worked at Houston Oil Field Material Company in Houston and 12 years at Texas Eastman Company in Longview. On January 26, 1945, Rita met the love of her life. She and Phillip Ray Woods were married six weeks later on March 9, 1945. They made their home in the Brooks Community after Ray was discharged from the Navy. Later they resided in Fairplay where they raised Missouri Fox Trotting Horses and enjoyed attending horse shows across the area and other states. Ray passed away December 31, 1994, two months before their 50th anniversary. Rita was a member of Central Baptist Church and the Faith Sunday School class. She loved her Lord and cherished her family. She was an accomplished artist and seamstress. Preceding her in death were her parents, husband, infant daughter Phyllis Rae Woods, siblings Lynn Kennedy, Betty Ruth Gillean, Bernice Kimbrell, Rachel McMahan, Carolyn Sue Spraggins, Ruby Warrick, Gail Frederick and Billie Jean Dinehart. Left to cherish her memory are a daughter, Kathy Woods Dowdy and husband Rickey of Frisco, TX; granddaughter, Kim Dowdy Hodge and husband Blake of Frisco, TX; grandson, Jeffrey Dowdy and wife Melody of Asheville, NC; great-grandchildren, Keaton Dowdy, Gentry Rose Dowdy, Kennedy Rae Hodge and Hallie Elizabeth Hodge. Also surviving Mrs. Woods are brothers, Herman Kennedy of Cooper, TX and James D. Kennedy, Jr. and wife Joyce of Terrell, TX; sister-in-law, Patsy Woods Byerly of Gaithersburg, MD; and a host of nephews, nieces and cousins. Serving as pallbearers will be nephews, Cliff Woods, Phillip Woods, James Byerly, Kenneth Kennedy, Larry Warrick and Ric Cooper. The family requests memorials be made to Central Baptist Church in Carthage or Waldrop Cemetery.