Rita I. Ines King

Rita Ines King ( née Yriart), 77, of Wayzata, Minnesota passed away Thursday April 18, 2024 from congestive heart failure.
Born in New York City and raised in the U.S., Mexico, and Portugal, Rita traveled throughout Europe and South America before settling down in Dearborn, Michigan to raise her family. Rita loved learning. She attended Bryn Mawr College and University of Michigan, earning a BA in Art History and an MBA before embracing her passion for education as a paraprofessional in the Dearborn Public Schools.
After battling cancer as a young adult, Rita was thrilled to meet her husband William Allen King, who helped her through the fear of coming out of remission. Through their mutual love and loyalty, she achieved a dream she thought she would never realize: building a family of her own.
Rita loved being a wife and mother more than anything. Her greatest joy was raising children, and out of all the places she lived, the home she made with her husband in Dearborn was her favorite. She delighted in taking her children to museums and spent many afternoons sharing with them her love of art at the Detroit Institute of Arts and her interest in history at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. Her love of learning is a legacy that she left to her children and the students that she taught.
Rita's final years were spent with her daughter and husband in Minnesota. In her retirement, she enjoyed birdwatching, afternoons at her health club, and corresponding with her many relatives in the United States and in Argentina. She loved speaking Spanish and made fast friends with neighbors and business owners who shared her heritage.
Rita is survived by her husband, William Allen King Sr., her son, William Allen King Jr., her daughter, Kathleen May Vandevoorde (née King), and her brothers, Richard Yriart and Robert Yriart.
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