It is with deep sadness that we share the news that Rita Franke - adored wife, loving mother and grandmother, amazing aunt and sister, and a wonderful woman in so many ways – peacefully passed away on Sunday, January 4, 2026, surrounded by her family. Anyone who knew Rita and Woody will not be surprised that she was eager to join him after he passed away on May 29, 2025. She and Woody wrote her obituary below; her daughters note that she did everything Dad did, “but in high heels and backwards” - as did many women of her generation. If Woody was the Ringleader of the Franke family circus, Rita was the Circus Manager, making sure the entire operation moved smoothly from place to place while she effortlessly wrangled the beasts and the clowns.

Mom and Dad’s version is as follows: 

Supposedly Oscar Wilde said “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all”. Oscar Wilde would have to admit that Rita lived life to the fullest.

Rita Horrell Franke was born in Galveston, Texas, July 31, 1943 to Warren and Edythe Horrell. Her father moved often and she grew up in Texas City (a survivor of the explosion in 1947), Iowa, California, La Marque, Harlingen, Corpus Christi, and graduated from Palacios High School in 1961. In 1964 while working at the Bank of the Southwest in Houston she met and married Durwood (Woody) Franke. She gave birth and raised two smart, wonderful daughters, Rachel and Gretchen. In 1969 she moved to Hawaii with Woody and her life of adventure began.

Rita lived and set up households on five continents – North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. She visited all 50 USA states, several Canadian provinces, all states and territories of Australia and many countries around the world. She lived in Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Iran, England, Florida, Saudi Arabia, Virginia, France, Australia, Ecuador, Belgium, Greece and retired to Wimberley, Texas in 2007.

Interested in travel, other cultures, foods, history, and people, Rita explored ancient civilizations such as: Persepolis in southern Iran; Jerash and Petra in Jordan; the Giza pyramids and Luxor in Egypt; Knossos on Crete; Chichen Itza in Mexico; Angkor Wat in Cambodia; Mycenaean ruins in Greece; Machu Picchu in Peru; many Roman ruins throughout Europe and Greek ruins throughout Greece to name a few. Rita probably visited more abbeys and cathedrals than the Pope – York Minster, Canterbury, St. Paul’s, Winchester, Westminster Abbey, and others in England; Notre Dame in Paris, Amiens, Strasbourg, Reims, Chartres, Bayeux, and more in France; Cologne, Aachen, Trier and more in Germany; Seville, Burgos, Toledo, Segovia and others in Spain; Florence, Milan, Sienna, Pisa and more in Italy; St. Peter’s Basilica (and Sistine Chapel) in Vatican City; Hagia Sophia in Istanbul; St. Stephen’s in Vienna; and the monasteries of Meteora, Greece to name a few. She kissed the Blarney Stone in Cork, Ireland.The castles and chateaus she visited are too many to list but she slept overnight in castles converted to hotels in Germany, Spain, France and Belgium. She spent the night in a 900-year-old caravanserai in the Iranian salt desert. She made a home for her family of four in a VW pop-up camper van for three plus months while traveling from England to Hungary and back.

Rita also visited some of the great mosques in the world such as the Blue Mosque and Suleymaniye in Istanbul; mosques in Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz, Iran; the Mohammed Ali mosque in Cairo; Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem; and many more. She walked barefoot through Hindu temples in India, Sri Lanka and Bali. She took in the beauty of the Taj Mahal in India, Buddhist temples in Nara and Kyoto, Japan, and the Buddhist Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet. She saw the Buddha’s tooth in Sri Lanka and Muhammad’s relics in the Topkapi Palace Museum. She walked along the Great Wall of China and Hadrian’s Wall in England. She walked among the boulders of Stonehenge, the megaliths of Carnac in Brittany and the ruins of Pompeii and Ephesus. She loved exploring old walled cities such as Carcassonne and Rothenberg ob der Tauber. She witnessed inrushing tides in the Bay of Fundy in Canada and at Mont St. Michel in France.

Rita explored many of the great museums of the world – The Metropolitan in New York, Louvre, Prado, British Museum, Hermitage in Russia, Uffizi in Florence, Rijksmuseum, Vatican Museum, d’Orsay, Smithsonian, Egyptian Museum, and others. Rita has visited several of the US National Parks including Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Teton, Glacier, Arches, Acadia, Sequoia, Denali, Big Bend, Rocky Mountain, Canyonlands, Everglades, Shenandoah, Olympic, Mesa Verde, Death Valley, Great Smokey Mountains, Hawaii Volcanoes, Crater Lake, Guadalupe Mountains, Voyagers, Isle Royal, Petrified Forest, Badlands and more. She visited Carlsbad Caverns; Mammoth Cave; Caverns of Sonora, Longhorn Caverns and Cascade Caverns in Texas; Garcia Caves in Mexico; Lascaux Caves in France; Han-sur-Lesse caves in Belgium; Luray Caverns in Virginia and others.

Rita stood on the equator in Ecuador and Kenya. She straddled the prime meridian in Greenwich, England. She sat on the Tropic of Capricorn in Australia and crossed the Arctic Circle in Alaska. Rita sailed the Seven Seas. She dipped her toes, and sometimes more, in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Great Lakes, Loch Ness, Mediterranean, Gulf of Mexico, Aegean, Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf, Dead Sea, Great Salt Lake, Caribbean, Lake Geneva, Tasman Sea, Arabian Sea, Lake Como, English Channel, North Sea, and the Baltic Sea among others. She traveled to the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, sailed across the Nile in a faluka, traveled for three days on the Yangtze River in China, relaxed in a gondola in Venice, traversed the Panama Canal from end to end, drove along the Blue Danube, rode in a baton mouche on the Seine, white water rafted the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania, and took a midnight cruise on the Rhine River in Germany to view fireworks. Rita witnessed the Perahera parade of decorated elephants in Sri Lanka, Carnival in Venice, Octoberfest in Munich, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and watched the whirling dervishes in Turkey.

Having been born on an island, Galveston, Rita has visited several of the world’s noted islands – Long Island, Hawaii Islands, Sanibel, Key West, Padre Island, Outer Banks and others in the USA; Great Britain; Ireland; Skye in Scotland; New Zealand; Bahamas and others in the Caribbean; Isle of Capri and Sicily in Italy; Mont St. Michel in France; many of the Galapagos Islands; Tasmania, Kangaroo, Montague, Whitsunday, and Hamilton Islands in Australia; Bali and Lombok in Indonesia; Sri Lanka; Bahrain; Japan; Isla Iguana in Panama; Prince Edward Island in Canada; several Greek Islands such as Santorini, Rhodes, Mykonos, Naxos, Hydra, Kefallinia, Spetses, and Crete to name a few.

Rita was an avid hiker and hiked in deserts, mountains, and rain forests all over the world. One of her major achievements was hiking the Samaria Gorge on the Island of Crete from top to bottom – over 10 miles long. She hiked to the top of Mount Kosciusko, the highest spot in Australia. She hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail and both Caprock and Palo Duro Canyons in Texas. She skied in the Alps (both downhill and cross country), snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef, rode horses and camels, and went on camera safari in Kenya sighting the Big Five plus more wildlife. Growing up as a tree-climbing tomboy she participated in bowling, tennis, jogging, swimming, skiing, sports car rallying, and fishing.

Rita was a great cook and appreciated upscale restaurants. Among the many places she ate were the Tour de Argent and Jules Verne in Paris, the Inn at Little Washington, Comme Chez Soi in Brussels, Savoy Grill in London, and Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. She toured and sampled several prime vineyards throughout France, California, Washington, Australia, and Texas.

Rita also worked in many of the places she traveled to, in a variety of roles. In the midst of this adventurous life, Rita also earned her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology at George Mason University graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 grade average, successfully convincing the admissions counselor that her life experience was worth a significant number of credit hours (expired passports were some of her compelling evidence). She was a member of the National Honor Society. She missed her Mensa test by only 1 point. Her favorite hobbies were genealogy research of her family and quilting. She belonged to quilt guilds in Australia, Belgium and in retirement in Wimberley. Her family is finding comfort – literally and figuratively - in her artistic and cozy quilted art. Rita was an avid reader and belonged to the Friends of Wimberley Valley Library (and libraries everywhere she lived). Rita loved animals and counted dogs, cats, hamsters, and birds as friends. She was deeply loved and will be sorely missed. She is survived by her daughter Rachel Franke and daughter-in-law Deana Merrell; daughter Gretchen Franke and her granddaughter Sophie-Claire Franke Church.