Edith "Edy" Rittenhouse

Edith “Edy” Rittenhouse, 87, of Lewellen passed away Sunday evening, February 16, 2020 at the Regional West Garden County Nursing Home in Oshkosh.

Cremation has taken place and no services are being planned at this time.

Holechek-Bondegard Funeral Home and Cremations in Oshkosh is serving the Rittenhouse family.

Memorials can be made to the Regional West Garden County Foundation- Nursing Home Fund (c/o Wendy Krueger 1100 West 2nd St.  Oshkosh, NE 69154).

Edith Rachel (Yetter) Rittenhouse was born on April 26, 1932, the first daughter in a family of 8 children born to Ben and Marguerite (Jenewein) Yetter, in a sod house 10 miles north of Lewellen.  She joined 3 brothers.  Eventually the family moved to the south table 9 miles south of Lewellen, where Edith started country school at District 36.  She was joined later by 2 sisters and 2 brothers.  The family moved to Pine Bluffs, Wyoming where she attended school from 7^th grade through high school.  The family then moved to Mitchell, Nebraska.  She took her LPN training at St. Mary’s College of Nursing in Scottsbluff under the direction of Dr. Douglas Campbell.  Edith used her LPN training at the Lewellen Nursing Home and dropped her training when she married Merle Rittenhouse on October 21, 1952.  To this union 3 children were born, Sara, Richard, and Mary.

In 1969 she moved away from home to send the children to high school in Oshkosh and began working at Midwec and Marshalltown before moving back to continue her life on the family farm.  Edith and Merle retired in 1986 and purchased a home in Lewellen.  She served on the Lewellen Village Council and as council to the Aging Office of Western Nebraska for several years.  Merle died from health complications on October 11, 2011. 

Edith was a gardener and her lawn and yard was her pride and joy.

She is survived by her 3 children; Sara (Lance) Barnica of Sedgwick, CO, Richard (Waynette) Rittenhouse of Lewellen, and Mary Ann (William) Saunders of Dundee, Scotland; 5 grandchildren; 6 great-grandchildren; along with a host of friends, amazing neighbors and extended family.