Rita Lovelace into Festus R-6 Schools Hall of Fame

(Festus) The Festus R-6 School District has been celebrating homecoming all this week. With homecoming comes the annual Festus Hall of Fame induction and this year’s inductee is 1955 graduate Rita Lovelace. Lovelace says she remembers her time in Festus schools well.

After the flood of 1993, Lovelace pretty much spearheaded the efforts of building a levee in Crystal City to hold off future flooding from the Mississippi River. After years of back and forth with different government agencies and politicians, the levee was built in 2006 and was named in her honor. She says it was a lot of hard work by many people to get it done.

The Festus homecoming parade will take place this (Friday) afternoon with Lovelace leading the way. She says her kids and grandkids are looking forward to that.

Lovelace, now 86 years old, has been married to her husband Tom for 65 years. They have three children, five grandchildren, and two young great-grandchildren. Lovelace still lives in Festus.

For the homecoming football tonight (Friday) in which Lovelace will be honored, will play the Pacific Indians.