Rita Mae Schuster

Memorial services for Rita Schuster of Chokio, Minnesota, will be held Friday, May 12, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chokio, Minnesota, with Father John Paul Knopik officiating.  Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the church on Friday.  Burial will be in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery, Chokio, Minnesota.

Rita Mae (Billiet) Schuster was born May 11, 1928, at Holy Trinity Hospital, the fourth of five children of Frank and Sarah (Myers) Billiet.  She was baptized and confirmed at Holy Rosary Church in Graceville, Minnesota. Rita attended school at District 11 for eight years and graduated from high school in 1946 from Graceville Public School.  After graduation, she worked as a bookkeeper for Ammerman Plumbing & Heating in Graceville until September of 1948.   On September 11, 1948, she was married to Dean Schuster at Holy Rosary Church in Graceville.  They had three children:  Deanna, Marcia, and Tom.  They farmed and milked Jersey cows near Chokio until they retired from farming in January 1963.  At that time, Rita went to work as a billing clerk for Federated Telephone in Chokio until 1967 when she went to work as a secretary for Dean at the Schuster Agency for Farmers Union Insurance in Morris.  In 1988, she retired from the insurance agency.  Throughout all of this time, Rita was a devoted homemaker. After retirement, Rita and Dean spent fifteen winters at Valhalla Park in Edinburg, Texas, where Rita began some well-deserved years having a good time polishing her golf game and entertaining friends, old and new.  From the time of their marriage, Rita and Dean lived on the farm east of Chokio until they sold that home and moved to Eastside Acres in January 2012. 

Rita thoroughly enjoyed her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandson.  Her favorite time was playing golf with Dean and she filled many, many hours with knitting, counted cross-stitch, crossword puzzles, reading and cards.  She enjoyed attending ballgames for Tom, and subsequently for his children, Cassandra and Dylan, and made many baptism and graduation gifts and cakes for her family. 

Living in Chokio brought great enjoyment to Rita, where she had a wonderful circle of friends.  Throughout the years, she participated in Jolly 10 Homemakers, was chairman of St. Mary's Guild, and was President of the American Legion Auxiliary. 

Rita passed away Thursday, May 4, 2023, at West Wind Village in Morris, Minnesota, one week before her 95^th birthday.

She is survived by her husband: Dean Schuster of Chokio; three children: Deanna (David) Evenson of Detroit Lakes, Marcia Kladek of Chanhassen and Thomas (Betty) Schuster of Wheaton; seven grandchildren: Ben (Lisa) Evenson, Gabriel (Melissa) Evenson, Lesley (Andrew) Evenson Browen, Jesse Kladek, Sean (Samantha) Kladek, Cassandra (Romel) Cyril and Dylan (Krista) Schuster; 15 great-grandchildren: Bailey Evenson, Brodey Evenson, Cambell Evenson, Sidney Evenson, Avery Browen, Morgan Browen, Olivia Browen, Cooper Browen, Tori Kladek, Jemma Schuster, Vayda Schuster, Schoubert Cyril, Bryson Cyril, Veronica Cyril and Wakeen Cyril; one great-great-grandson: Kingsley Meza and one brother: Harold Anthony (Clarice) Billiet of Shoreview. She was preceded in death by her parents: Frank and Sarah Billiet; two brothers: Luke (Julia) Billiet and Raymond (Kathy Stotesbery) Billiet and one sister: Dorothy (Clarence) Kleindl.