Sister Blanche Rita was born in Uniontown, Kentucky, on March 20 1912, as Mary Blanche, the tenth child born to James Henry and Mary Alma Bickett. Within four years, numbers eleven and twelve completed the roster for the Bickett family with four brothers: Lewis, Paul, Lucian and Ben; and seven sisters: Emma, Mary Josephine, Mary Helen (Sister James Alma), Alice, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Agnes Lucille (Sister Agnes Irene). Sister Blanche Rita was the last surviving member of that nuclear family.
Mary Blanche was baptized on May 12, 1912 at St. Agnes Church in Uniontown. She began school at Shanks School, also in Uniontown, and completed the first three grades there. The family later moved to Waverly where she would finish elementary school at Hitesville School. She graduated from Mount Saint Joseph Academy in May 1930, having spent all four years of high school there.
On the feast of St. Joseph 1931, Mary Blanche became Sister Blanche Rita, joining her sister, Sister James Alma, also an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph. There were fifteen novices in this class: Sisters Jean Clare Ballard, Mary Anselm Beavin, Mary Concepta Beavin, Blanche Rita, Isadore Brown, Elizabeth Henry Clark, Mary Beatrice Donahue, Charles Irene Hayden, Mary Augusta Hayden, Mary Ann Krampe, James Edward Mudd, Jamesina Spain, Mary De Sales Thomas, Margaret Ann Wathen and Dorothy Ann Whelan. Sister Blanche Rita was the last surviving member of that class. She had celebrated her 80th year as an Ursuline Sister.
Sister Blanche Rita ministered in Wynot, Nebraska; Waterflow, New Mexico, St. Columba, Louisville, St. Martin of Tours, Flaherty, and St. Bartholomew, Buechel, Kentucky. In all of these schools, she made a warm and loving home for the Sisters by cooking, doing laundry, making every day beautiful and peaceful with her prayerfulness, generosity and good humor.
In 1952 she was assigned to the Mount to manage the Motherhouse/Academy laundry. The laundry became the second home for many of the Academy girls. Sister was a motherly presence to all of them, and second mother to many of them, especially to the girls who earned tuition by working with Sister in the laundry.
Sister retired in 1989, and spent her last years “praying for every one and having fun.” From early teen age, Sister Blanche Rita was a fleet-footed dancer. At the Reflection given during the Wake Service the evening before Sister’s funeral, we were reminded that “Sister Blanche Rita has danced her way among that angelic host, worshipping now in total abandon the God she loved so and so long. Sister died in St. Joseph Villa on January 10, 2011. Following the Mass of Resurrection, Sister’s remains were buried in the Motherhouse cemetery.