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Sister M. Rita Anne Forbes, M.M., who served the missions in the Philippines, Bolivia and China, died Oct. 5 at the Maryknoll Sisters Residential Care IV in Ossining. She was 82.
Assigned to the Philippines in 1953, she taught at high schools and elementary schools in Manila, Lucena City and Quezon City.
In Bolivia, beginning in 1974, she was an educator and a member of the congregation’s regional governing board, serving as coordinator, 1979-1981. She went back to Bolivia in 1994, becoming the director of orientation at the Maryknoll Language Institute in Cochabamba.
In China, she taught English at universities in Jinan, 1989-1991, and in Shandong, 1991-1993.
Born in Saginaw, Mich., she entered Maryknoll in 1946 and professed final vows in 1952. She held a bachelor’s degree in education from Maryknoll Teachers College and master’s degrees in philosophy from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and religious studies from Maryknoll Seminary.
Her brother, Norbert, survives her.
A Funeral Mass was offered Oct. 14 at the main chapel of the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining. Burial was in the sisters’ cemetery.
