Rita Malie

Rita M. Malie, 76, passed away on April 2, 2017 peacefully at her home in Fleet Landing in Jacksonville, Florida.  Rita was born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1940 and grew up in Struthers, Ohio until she was married in 1959 to Nick Malie.  She spent the first 12 years of marriage raising her children Doug and Nikki until she obtained her R.N. degree in 1971 and worked as a nurse at Warren General Hospital, St. Elizabeth’s hospital and Planned Parenthood.  While at Planned Parenthood she went back to school at Youngstown State University where she earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing but her crowning achievement while there was marching in Washington, DC with the National Organization of Women where she was an active member.  After finishing her degree, she worked in Administration at the Youngstown Hospital Association and while there she went back to school in 1984 and obtained her Master’s in Business Administration in 1986 from Baldwin-Wallace University.  In 1989 she was the driving force to take her family south to the sun of Florida when she got a job with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida in their Orlando office as the Medical Services Director.  After 10 years with BCBS she retired but kept extremely active through volunteer work with Mayo Clinic and Baptist Beaches Hospital.  Rita was a prolific writer her entire life but in 2007 she published her first book, Goodbye America chronicling her mother’s childhood.  In 2011 she published her second book, Supreme Sacrifice with the goal of inspiring children of alcoholic parents to break the cycle of addiction.

Rita is survived by her husband of 57 years, Nick Malie and her children Doug and Rita Jr. Malie and Nikki Malie, her grandchildren, Morgan who she affectionately referred to as her Angel and Madison, her Star and her brother and sisters, Mike Dubyak, Joyce Barolak, and Michele DeBacco.  She touched the lives of hundreds of people and she will be greatly missed. Rita had a zest for life, was a strong presence, and was always mentally challenging herself and those around her in a positive way. Rita was an extremely spiritual person who didn’t place much emphasis on the physical world and requested that her passing be kept as simple and private as possible.  Anyone wishing to honor her memory donate to her favorite charity which is the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund(tcjayfund.org).

Family meant everything to Rita and, as such, she wrote the following poem:

Family is like music,

Some high notes,

Some low notes,

But always a beautiful song entitled “Malie”