Rita Joyce Jaggers Strange age 78 of Munfordville departed this life on Wednesday morning, Sept. 2 at Magnolia Village in Bowling Green.
On October 8, 1941 Rita was welcomed into this life by her parents Obert and Edna Fryer Jaggers.
Rita attended Cub Run Elementary School and enrolled in Cub Run High School on the first Tuesday after Labor Day in 1955. Rita was declared as the valedictorian of her high school graduating class of 1959. She enrolled in Western Kentucky University in the fall of 1959 and on March 18, 1961 Rita and Wandel were married. Three years after enrolling at WKU, Rita graduated from Western and was named valedictorian of her college graduating class. In the fall of 1962, Rita started her teaching career at Hart Memorial High School. At the end of 1965 Rita received her master’s degree in counseling.
In 1969 while Rita was a counselor in the Williamstown School System, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the KY Association of School Administrators and in 1981 she was named as Guidance Counselor of the year in Kentucky.
The most special event in Rita’s life occurred on February 3, 1973 when she gave birth to her only child, a son Kendrick Clayton Strange who resides in Bowling Green and is a teacher in the Warren County School System.
Rita returned to the Hart County School System in 1982 as a Guidance Counselor and Director of Special Services for Students. She retired from this position in June of 1992. After retiring, she served on the Hart County School Board and during the summer worked in the ticket office at Mammoth Cave. Rita retired again to help her husband with the antique shop they own in Cave City, KY.
In addition to her husband Wandel, Rita is survived by her son Kendrick Clayton Strange of Bowling Green,
her brother Dr. Rondell Clayton Jaggers and his wife Dr. Leslie Jaggers of Smyrna, GA and three uncles Hubert Fryer and his wife Vada, Chester Fryer and his wife Martha Lee and Bobby Jaggers, several cousins and a host of friends also survive.
Funeral services for Rita Joyce Jaggers Strange will be 11am Saturday, September 5 in the chapel of Sego Funeral Home with Bro. Tommy Adams officiating. Burial will be in the Stockholm Cemetery. Visitation will be Friday from 2-8pm and after 8am Saturday at the Sego Funeral Home. The family wants to speak to each person that visits the funeral home and hear all the special memories that you share about Rita’s life, but they do request that each one please refrain from shaking hands and hugging and the family does ask that a face covering is worn while in the funeral home.
