Rita G. Roy

Lowell - Mrs. Rita G. (Matteau) Roy, 92, a lifelong resident of the Pawtucketville section of Lowell, died peacefully surrounded by her family on Monday, September 11, 2006 in a local nursing home. She was the wife of the late Jocelyn R. Roy who died in 1974.
Born in Lowell on May 3, 1914, she was a daughter of the late Napoleon and Delia (Marchand) Matteau.
Mrs. Roy studied in the nursing field at the former Holy Ghost Hospital in Cambridge as a young woman. After raising her family, she worked as a nursing assistant at the former St. Joseph Hospital in Lowell for 35 years. Mrs. Roy was the first employee of St. Joseph's to be honored with the prestigious Homer Bourgeois Award, an award presented annually to an employee for their exemplary service.
She was a lifelong communicant of the former Ste. Jeanne D'Arc Church. She held membership in the D'Youville Manor Ladies Guild and the Centralville Senior Citizens Club, as well as financially supporting a great number of charitable organizations.
She is survived by her seven children and their families, three sons and two daughters-in-law, Richard and Catherine Roy, Jean-Marc and Patricia Roy and Michel Roy, all of Lowell; four daughters and four sons-in-law, Suzanne and Robert Vaillancourt, Denise and Theodore Nunes and Lillian and Guy Bedard, all of Lowell and Vivian and Philip Kalinowsky of Tyngsboro; a sister, Germaine Pepin of Lowell; a sister-in-law, Pauline Matteau of Lowell; she was the grandmother of 24 children among whom were the late Ross Vaillancourt, Kurt Vaillancourt and Todd Nunes; great grandmother of 26 children; also several nieces and nephews.