Rita Jean Aldridge

RITA JEAN ALDRIDGE Rita was born on September 6, 1921 in Loma Linda, California. She lived there and attended grammar school until the fourth grade when the family moved to West Los Angeles. She graduated from Beverly Hills high school and then attended USC for over three years. When World War II started, she left USC and attended Sawyers Business School, learning to type and do shorthand. She was then employed as a secretary for the Air Force [AFTTC] in Santa Monica. Rita's fiancé, William Aldridge, returned from East Africa and they were married on February 8, 1944. He worked in the oil business which took them to Midland, Texas where, in the early 1950's, they lived for about eight years. They returned to West Los Angeles for a few years before moving to Wiesbaden, Germany, where Mr. Aldridge was involved with Brunswick Sporting Goods Co. located at the numerous U.S. Army bases in Europe. After two years they returned to Los Angeles and moved into the house they had built in 1952 but never had occupied. Rita's parents were very generous in helping them see many interesting parts of the world. They traveled extensively to Europe, South America, Alaska, India, Asia and the Orient, usually with the Los Angeles County Art Museum travel programs. In 1982 Mr. Aldridge was sent to Bangkok, Thailand for the Triton Oil Co. where he and Rita lived for almost three years. While there, Rita had fun buying antiques, etc. to ship to a friend's shop in the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. They returned to live in Beverly Hills to live where she was a member of the Beverly Hills Women's Club and the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, and served as a volunteer at Children's Hospital as a member of the Della Robbia Guild. Rita's husband died in 1985 while visiting family in Virginia. Since moving to Regents Point in 1999, Rita joined the Ladies' golf putting group, and was a volunteer at Sunridge, serving juice to residents. She enjoyed playing bridge as well as lawn bowling and was a member of the Newport Lawn Bowling Club. She was very happy to be living at Regents Point and felt that her friends had become her family as she had no siblings or children.