Rita Mae Hall

Rita Mae Hall (née Winkelmann) was born in East Saint Louis, IL, on May 8, 1948 to Arnold and Evelyn Winkelmann (née Greer). She graduated from the Academy of Notre Dame High School in Belleville IL, in 1966. While there she met her lifelong sweetheart Dennis Hall, who attended nearby Althoff Catholic High School. As the story goes, he saw her being carried on some classmate’s shoulders at a basketball game, and asked his friend to set them up on a date. They dated through high school and into college and married June 12, 1970.

In 1980 Rita and Dennis moved their growing family to Rochester, NY after Dennis accepted a position at University of Rochester. Rita stayed home and cared for her young family in these years. Rita later attended SUNY Buffalo and earned a masters degree in library science. She worked as a school librarian in Irondequoit School System until Dennis took a new position in Nashville, Tennessee in 2000.

Rita continued working part time as a substitute school librarian, but dedicated much of her life in Nashville to volunteering. She was an educational docent for Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, on the board at C.A.S.A, a non-profit organization that trains volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children, and worked with Book’em, to promote childhood literacy by providing free books to underserved children. Rita also helped organize two book clubs, one at the Green Hills Branch Library and the other through the Vanderbilt Women's Club, which started in 2006 and is still ongoing today. Rita devoted much of her free time to doting on her four grandchildren, native plant gardening, walking at Radnor Lake with friends, birdwatching in Percy Warner Park, maintaining the home and finances, and making legendary pies.

She is preceded in death by parents, Arnold and Evelyn Winkelmann, and her devoted husband of 53 years, Dr. Dennis G. Hall. She is survived by daughters Katie Hall (Eyre) and Christy Hall, son Greg Hall, and grandchildren Eleanor and Petra Wassum, Anika and Hayden Eyre, older sister, Dana Wittenauer, sister-in-law Judy Ackermann along with cousins, nieces and nephews.

A visitation is scheduled for Saturday, February 28, 2026 in her hometown of Belleville, IL for noon at Blessed Sacrament Church, followed by a Catholic funeral mass at 1pm.  

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to The Alzheimer's Association (https://act.alz.org).