Services for Nita Ritchie, of Brookhaven, are 11 a.m. Tuesday,Oct. 18 at First United Methodist Church with burial in RosehillCemetery.

Visitation is today from 5 to 8 p.m. at Brookhaven Funeral Homeand Tuesday from 10 to 11 a.m. at the church.

Mrs. Ritchie, 65, died Oct. 15, 2005, at McComb Nursing andRehab Center. She was born on June 25, 1940, to James HardyThompson and Helen Avis Ripley Thompson.

She was a retired teacher. She had taught school in McComb,Natchez, Brookhaven, Columbus, Ga., and Gautier. She was also anadult education teacher at Copiah-Lincoln Community College. Shewas a member of First United Methodist Church, where she was achamber singer and a member of the church choir. She was a memberof the Daughters of the American Revolution, Matinee Musicale,Brookhaven Little Theatre and the Usual Players at BrookhavenLittle Theatre. She was well known in the part of Louise in theplay “Always, Patsy Cline,” and as Mother Superior in the plays”Nunsense” and “Nunsense II.” She also directed numerous playsincluding “Blythes Spirit,” “Scratch,” and “My Three Angels.”

Preceding her in death were her parents.

Survivors are her husband of 30 years, Carroll Ritchie, ofBrookhaven; her brother, James Thompson and his wife, Daronda, ofParagould, Ark.; her nephews, James Ripley Thompson, of Panama CityBeach, Fla., and John Hardy Thompson, of Paragould; her niece, TaraLeigh Thompson Wilder, of Panama City, Fla.; and a host of nieces,nephews, other relatives and friends.

Memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church BuildingFund or to the Brookhaven Little Theatre.