Rita Ilona Hope

Rita Ilona Hope a long time Phoenix resident passed away on Thursday, February 17th, 2005. Rita was born October 13th, 1929 in Essen, Germany to August and Elisa Kreft. She was married to Edward Francis Hope (dec'd 2001). Rita and Ed traveled and lived in many states across the country including New Jersey, California, and Maryland creating businesses and finding success in many ways as entrepreneurs. One venture was the Hope Wig Manufacturing Company operating from 1959 until 1972. The company Introduce the making of wigs in the U.S. and had factories across the country including Dallas TX, Phoenix, Mesa, Tucson and Scottsdale AZ, St Louis and Kansas City Missouri as well as Honolulu Hawaii. Together they started Hope Petroleum Ventures Inc. and Rita served as secretary. Ed and Rita tried their hand in many experimental endeavors such as their involvement in the early days of exploration in the field of Cryogenics. No matter what they were involved in they always found a way to give. When they started a tree farm they were known to donate many trees to the community. All that had the pleasure of sharing time with her will miss Rita, the benevolent and truly generous proprietor of Low Cost Storage on E. Southern Avenue. She is survived by 2 sisters Gerda Lamotte-Herbst, Gisela Mackscthen and 1 brother Bernd Kreft all of Germany, a sister-in-law Kathleen Redmond-Hope and a niece Lisa McLendon of New Jersey and many other nieces and nephews. Funeral visitation will be at Resthaven Park Mortuary from 5-8 PM on Friday, Feb. 25th, 4310 E. Southern Ave. Funeral Service at 10 AM on Saturday, Feb. 26th at Resthaven Park Mortuary followed by Interment at Resthaven Park Cemetery.