ticatfan3
July 12th, 2007, 1:09:54 PM
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=775bdb73-16e3-4b32-b1ef-08c297c32bc4&k=79587
Kelly Egan, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Margaret Ritza, who is to be buried in a ceremony today, was Renfrew royalty.
Her grandfather was M.J. O'Brien, the famous industrialist, railroader, hockey builder and theatre owner, and she grew up in a pocket of town called Millionaire's Corner.
When she married Larry Ritza in 1936, no less than Karsh took the wedding portrait. It showed Margaret, unsmiling, in a dress that swirled luxuriously around her feet and hugged her graceful neck.
It was the case, perhaps, that a regal air did not suit her.
"I was the homely one, skinny and not as smart as the rest. But I think being more dependable and caring made up for it."
So she wrote in a 34-page life story published for the family in 2004. There is something refreshing about her clear-eyed self-assessment.
Her death on Friday, at age 91, is also the loss of a living link. She was the only one of M.J.'s grandchildren still living in Renfrew and likely the person with the most vivid memories of the town's greatest benefactor, who died in 1940.
"She was an exceptional lady and great leader," said Marjorie Lindsay, a long-time friend and the town historian. "She loved her home town, her church, her county, her country."
Mrs. Ritza had another claim to fame. With husband Larry, they held season tickets for the Ottawa Rough Riders for 59 straight years, a record for any CFL city.
She was also a guardian of the O'Brien legacy.
In 1991, wearing a bright purple dress, she walked down the red carpet to centre ice at the old Montreal Forum, accompanied by hockey legend Frank Finnigan. Before a televised Canadiens game, she represented M.J. O'Brien as an early builder of the National Hockey League.
Indeed, to this day, Renfrew makes a strong argument as the birthplace of the NHL.
Thus, too, began a frequent correspondence with hockey great Jean Beliveau.
Mrs. Ritza was keenly interested in civic affairs. She was an avid letter writer, a frequent volunteer, a poet, a lifelong knitter, a matron to a large extended family and, in 1998, Renfrew's Citizen of the Year.
She spent decades working with the Catholic Women's League, was a director on the chamber of commerce and sat on the hospital's board of trustees. She was also a crack bridge player.
It was not her lot to idle about. With Larry, she started a bed and breakfast at her large home on Raglan Street South in 1989. She was 74 at the time.
Nor did she suffer from vanity. At the age of 84, as a fundraiser for the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, she agreed to have her head shaved, raising $6,000.
Though she came from money, Mrs. Ritza did not always have an easy path in life.
She was born on Sept. 4, 1915, to Stella O'Brien and Joseph Lawrence Murray, the eldest of six children.
On her first date in 1934 with Larry Ritza, the son of a Renfrew merchant, they attended a football game in Ottawa. Within six months of her marriage in 1936, she contracted tuberculosis.
Mrs. Ritza would spend two years recovering in a nursing home in Saranac Lake, New York, with her husband faithfully visiting on weekends. No sooner had she arrived home than she suffered a collapsed lung.
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Kelly Egan, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Margaret Ritza, who is to be buried in a ceremony today, was Renfrew royalty.
Her grandfather was M.J. O'Brien, the famous industrialist, railroader, hockey builder and theatre owner, and she grew up in a pocket of town called Millionaire's Corner.
When she married Larry Ritza in 1936, no less than Karsh took the wedding portrait. It showed Margaret, unsmiling, in a dress that swirled luxuriously around her feet and hugged her graceful neck.
It was the case, perhaps, that a regal air did not suit her.
"I was the homely one, skinny and not as smart as the rest. But I think being more dependable and caring made up for it."
So she wrote in a 34-page life story published for the family in 2004. There is something refreshing about her clear-eyed self-assessment.
Her death on Friday, at age 91, is also the loss of a living link. She was the only one of M.J.'s grandchildren still living in Renfrew and likely the person with the most vivid memories of the town's greatest benefactor, who died in 1940.
"She was an exceptional lady and great leader," said Marjorie Lindsay, a long-time friend and the town historian. "She loved her home town, her church, her county, her country."
Mrs. Ritza had another claim to fame. With husband Larry, they held season tickets for the Ottawa Rough Riders for 59 straight years, a record for any CFL city.
She was also a guardian of the O'Brien legacy.
In 1991, wearing a bright purple dress, she walked down the red carpet to centre ice at the old Montreal Forum, accompanied by hockey legend Frank Finnigan. Before a televised Canadiens game, she represented M.J. O'Brien as an early builder of the National Hockey League.
Indeed, to this day, Renfrew makes a strong argument as the birthplace of the NHL.
Thus, too, began a frequent correspondence with hockey great Jean Beliveau.
Mrs. Ritza was keenly interested in civic affairs. She was an avid letter writer, a frequent volunteer, a poet, a lifelong knitter, a matron to a large extended family and, in 1998, Renfrew's Citizen of the Year.
She spent decades working with the Catholic Women's League, was a director on the chamber of commerce and sat on the hospital's board of trustees. She was also a crack bridge player.
It was not her lot to idle about. With Larry, she started a bed and breakfast at her large home on Raglan Street South in 1989. She was 74 at the time.
Nor did she suffer from vanity. At the age of 84, as a fundraiser for the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, she agreed to have her head shaved, raising $6,000.
Though she came from money, Mrs. Ritza did not always have an easy path in life.
She was born on Sept. 4, 1915, to Stella O'Brien and Joseph Lawrence Murray, the eldest of six children.
On her first date in 1934 with Larry Ritza, the son of a Renfrew merchant, they attended a football game in Ottawa. Within six months of her marriage in 1936, she contracted tuberculosis.
Mrs. Ritza would spend two years recovering in a nursing home in Saranac Lake, New York, with her husband faithfully visiting on weekends. No sooner had she arrived home than she suffered a collapsed lung.
1 2 next page