| Rita Marie (Kuta) Mendyk |

Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 a.m. on Friday, June 27, 2025 at St. Josaphat’s Catholic Church in Loup City. Father Richard Piontkowski will celebrate the

Mass.

Jennifer Bliss and Caroline Mendyk will be the lectors.

Marian Novak and Lauri Lafond will be the gift bearers.

Katherine Mendyk will be the vocalist. Amy Kowalski will be the organist.

Pallbearers will include Katherine Mendyk, Caroline Mendyk, Bennett Mendyk, Joshua Hervey, Joseph Bliss, Jr., and Jennifer Bliss.

Burial will follow at the Evergreen Cemetery in Loup City.

Visitation will be from 5:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 26th at the church with a Rosary to follow at 6:00 p.m. at the church. Memorials are suggested to St. Josaphat’s Catholic Church.

Higgins Funeral Home in Loup City is in charge of arrangements. Condolences for the Mendyk family can be left at higginsfuneralhomelc. com.

Rita Marie (Kuta) Mendyk was born on September 27, 1931, to Adam and Mary (Nosal) Kuta in rural Loup City. She is survived by her loving sons, Stephen (Ruth) Mendyk and Michael (Becky) Mendyk; loving daughters, Stephanie Mendyk, Michele Mendyk, and Joni (Joseph, Sr.) Mendyk-Bliss; grandchildren Katherine Mendyk, Caroline Mendyk, Bennett Mendyk, Joshua Hervey, Joseph Bliss, Jr. (Jaryn), and Jennifer Bliss; great-grandchildren, Abbygail Wallace, Sophia Bliss, Isabella Bliss, Morrigan Bliss, Emma Paulbeck, and Claire Bliss; and two sisters, Marian (Kuta) Novak and Kathleen (Kuta) Klaes.

Rita was the fifth of nine children, with five sisters and three brothers, and grew up on a farm approximately seven miles west of Loup City. After attending country school through seventh grade, Rita attended St. Josaphat’s for eighth grade, after which she attended Loup City High School, graduating in 1949. While in high school, she excelled at English, writing and the humanities, which served her well during her forty-plus years of work outside the home. Furthering her education at Wayne State College while working full-time and raising five children, she was known for receiving perfect test scores in the Art History classes she took, much to the annoyance of her younger, less studious college classmates.

Rita married the love of her life, Leander (Lee) Mendyk, originally of Litchfield, in April 1953 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Grand Island. Their marriage may have been foreshadowed by the fact that when each of them received their First Holy Communion, they walked up the aisle together, side by side, at the age of ten.

Rita’s work career was long and varied. Immediately after high school, she worked for AT&T for approximately five years as a local and long-distance telephone operator. After marriage, Rita joined Lee at Fort Eustis, Virginia, where he was stationed during the Korean War. After his service, she devoted much of her life to supporting her husband, Lee, raising their five children while concurrently operating a childcare business or working full-time as a secretary while Lee obtained his bachelor’s degree (Kearney State) and masters and doctorate degrees (University of Northern Colorado, Greeley) in music. Rita typed Lee’s doctoral dissertation— error free.

At Lee’s side during his career, she lived in many communities throughout the Midwest, supporting him at each stop before moving to and settling in Winona, Minnesota, where she resided for forty-three years, working as a secretary in the Nursing Department and the Registrar’s Office at Winona State. In 2020, Rita moved to Fresno, California, to live under the care of her son, Stephen, and his family, where she enjoyed sunshine, warm weather, and California cuisine.

A devout Catholic, Rita prayed the Rosary daily, attended Mass weekly, and dutifully reminded all her children to do the same, with great regularity and little subtleness, much to their chagrin.

Rita enjoyed many hobbies, including canning vegetables from the garden, especially making raspberry jam; traveling with Lee to the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre where they enjoyed many musicals; attending Winona’s Shakespeare and Beethoven Festivals as well as all of Lee’s concerts at Winona State; visiting the Watkins and Polish museums with her daughter, Joni, as well The Sherman County Times | June 25, 2025

as visiting the Stuhr Museum in Nebraska with her daughter, Stephanie; and taking up the hobby of race walking at age sixty-five, where she won awards in her age group while competing in races in Minnesota and Iowa. An accomplished homemaker, Rita also enjoyed hosting elegant dinner parties for music faculty members while Lee was teaching at Winona State University, as well as preparing elaborate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and Sunday dinners for her family.

Rita’s contributions to others include passing on “real world” skills and knowledge to her children. Joni cans multiple types of pickles and beets; Stephen enjoys making several types of jam; Michael makes the best rhubarb pies; and Stephanie and Michele are accomplished cooks, with Michele carrying on the tradition of making her mother’s favorite Christmas cookies. In her later years, she was gracious enough to teach Joni how to embroider. All her children can function on five hours of sleep and are accomplished multi-taskers skills they learned from their mother. The ability to spot a bargain and stretch one dollar into two are skills she passed on to her children as a result of growing up in the Depression.

Rita often shared stories about growing up on the family farm west of Loup City in the Depression. She often remarked that “we made our own fun” and fondly recalls the first time she ate a grapefruit included in a “relief’ package from the county. It was a “big deal” when she received an easel and blackboard for Christmas to share with her brothers and sisters, as “times were tough.” As a high school junior, she moved to Loup City with her sister Delores (Dodie) to board “in town” and took care of several children before and after school during the week, while also ensuring her own homework was done. Sharing these stories with her children was a real-world gift to them—teaching them to work hard, to save your money, and to keep moving forward, even when times are tough.

Rita now returns to Loup City, to rest next to her husband, Lee, and to meet the Lord.

Rita was preceded in death by her husband, Leander “Lee” Mendyk; her brothers, Arnold (Jack) Kuta, Ernest (Ernie) Kuta, and Richard (Dick) Kuta; her sisters, Angeline (Lynne) Kuta Rozmiarek, Delores (Dodie) Kuta Dickerson, and Georgean (Georgia) Kuta Davis; and her granddaughter, whom she adored, Sara Anne Hervey.