On June 29 at 6 p.m., “the Lord put on his dancing shoes to welcome home” our loving, caring, and talented wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend.

Rita passed away peacefully in the Kalispell Regional Healthcare Intensive Care Unit surrounded by her family. She died from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) after complications of hip surgery at North Valley Hospital.

Rita was born to Noni and Tony Mozer in Choteau, on Jan. 21, 1939.

She attended grade school in Dupuyer and graduated valedictorian of Valier High School. Throughout her life, she painted watercolor landscapes, charcoal portraits and sketched portraits. Rita loved pleasing her family and friends with her crafts, cooking, knitting and sewing, and after retirement from CFAC, she was able to spend time crocheting newborn baby hats and scarves for heart patients at valley hospitals. One of her favorite things to sew was purses out of sports-themed fabric.

She was famous with her kids and grandkids for her cookies, with ginger creams as their favorite. She was especially proud of all her children and glowed at the thought of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She is survived by her husband, Robert McLeod, of Whitefish; and four children, Sheri Rose (Frank) of Alabama, Doug McLeod (Jennifer) of Kentucky, Sandi Cooper (Tim) of Bozeman, and Julie Cowan (Ron) of Missoula. She is also survived by seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, Cory Cooper (Crystal, Addi and Blake) and Nikayla Cooper; Ian, Maggie, Kelsey and Grace McLeod; and Heather Cowan. She is also survived by her sister Myrna (John) Nyberg of Missoula.

She was preceded in death by her mother and father, Noni and Tony Mozer, of Dupuyer.

A celebration of life will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 2, at Austin Funeral Home.

Austin Funeral Home is caring for the McLeod family.