Rita I. Galvin passed away peacefully at her home in Reading, MA, on March 2, 2016. She was 97 years old. Rita was born in Haverhill, Ma, on July 4, 1918, daughter of Albert and Lillian Lagasse. She married Thomas F. Galvin, also of Haverhill, on September 1, 1941, just before WWII sent Tom to England for four years.

Rita was a talented artist and crafts person, a wood carver, silk-screener, weaver and dabbler in a wide range of arts and crafts. She was a founder of the New England Wood Carvers' Association and active in the Reading Society of Craftsman and the Reading Symphony Orchestra for many decades.

Rita was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Tom, her son Gregory Galvin, and by her sister, Marion Sullivan, and her brothers, Joseph Lagasse and Everett Lagasse. She is survived by her daughter, Patricia Kane of Concord, MA; her son David Galvin of Seattle, WA; her brothers George Lagasse of N. Chelmsford and James Lagasse of Haverhill, and her sister, Joan Veroneau of Plaistow, NH; as well as 6 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Her funeral will be held from the Douglass, Edgerley and Bessom Funeral Home 25 Sanborn St., (corner of Woburn St.) Reading on Monday, March 7 at 9:30am followed by a Mass of Christian Burial in St. Agnes Church 186 Woburn St. Reading at 10:30am. Burial to follow at Charles Lawn Cemetery in Reading. Funeral home visiting hours will be held on Sunday from 4:00-8:00pm.

Donations in lieu of flowers can be directed to a charity of your choice, or to the Visiting Nurse Association of Middlesex-East/Sawtelle Family Hospice House 320 Haverhill St. Reading, MA 01867.