Rita Lenora (Avery) Koller was born on November 29, 1936 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She passed away on September 9, 2025 while being cared for by the wonderful staff at Botkin Health and Rehab in Wellington, Kansas and Jennie and Chris with Phoenix Home Care and Hospice.  She was preceded in death by her parents, Wilfred and Jessie (Seaman) Avery, eleven siblings, her husband Donald Koller to whom she was married for 44 years, loved with blinding dedication and had successfully wooed with extra hot fudge in his sundaes at the soda shop where she worked, and son-in-law Scottie Macormac.

She is survived by her four children, Lynn (David) Standrich, Donald (Rachel) Koller, Joyce Macormac, and Douglas (Shelby) Koller. She leaves behind 8 grandchildren, 9 great grandchildren, her favorite grandson-in-law Aaron Amrein, a sister-in-law Helen Avery, many nieces and nephews, friends Carol Casey, Claire Leisey and Ida Eichman and a few favorite register associates at Sam's Club.

When her granddaughter was in college, a creative writing professor asked the class to write a few sentences about their grandma.  One by one, the teacher looked at the slips of paper and dropped them into the trash.  "Boring.  Predictable.  Oh, she makes cookies. How original." Until he got to Allison's lines about Rita: "Now this!" he declared, holding it up high. "THIS is a grandma I'd want to read about."

Rita spoke with a Massachusetts accent that she refused to give up, and as a result she might pahk her cah around the cahnah or ask for more buttah.  She and Don moved often because of his work for the Air Force and Cessna, living in many States and even Paris, France before settling in Derby, Kansas.  She loved Williams Sonoma and thought nothing of dropping $400 on a crock pot. Even after he passed, Don continued to give her generous gifts that she helped him choose as a symbol of their undying love.  She loved to host family dinners when her grandkids were little that would have put Martha Stewart to shame; her most enduring recipes are orange cookies and popovers.  For years she hosted themed club events at her home, which is why we think she had thirteen coffee pots in her back room.

In the last months of her life, dementia tried to win but she fought like someone who grew up five miles from Boston.  She refused to eat the hot dogs they tried to serve her because "you know what they are made of", but then agreed to eat them when she was reminded that in France those items would be a delicacy.  She refused to eat chili on every single occasion because that was "peasant food".  She was decidedly naughty with an intelligence and wit that made even the insulted laugh, most of the time.

Rita was many things.  She was generous, difficult, stubborn and unapologetic.  She will be missed and certainly not forgotten.  Please take a moment to not only think of Rita, but also her husband Don, who is getting an earful about leaving her alone for the past 27 years.

At Rita's request there will not be a funeral service and a private inurnment will be held at Hillcrest Cemetery in Derby, Kansas.

Memorials may be sent to Phoenix Home Care and Hospice, 3450 N Rock Rd Bldg 200 Unit 213, Wichita, KS 67226, or to Botkin Care and Rehab, 102 W Botkin St, Wellington, KS 67152.

Prairie Rose Funeral Home, 602 E. Main St., Anthony, KS 67003.