Rita Buckingham
Rita Marie Buckingham, 41, of Queensbury, NY, passed away Saturday, Oct. 31st, 2009, at Glens Falls Hospital surrounded by her loving friends and family. Immediately after her passing, on what was a cloudy, dreary day, if you happened to look toward the sky, you could see the skies open up ever so quickly, and the sun began to shine as she went to be with the lord.
Born in Lowville, NY on October 30th, 1968, the youngest child of John and Clara Bush Matulewicz. Rita graduated from Lowville Academy in 1986 and Cobleskill ATC in 1988.
Rita worked for Jardine Insurance Company full time from 1992 to 1998 then part time until 2009. Rita began to work with her husband for the family business Commercial Truck & Equipment in 2007 and handled all of the accounting responsibilities for the company. Rita was also very involved at the Center for Early Learning from 2001 to 2008 as her three boys attended Preschool there. Rita was a devoted board officer serving as Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President and successfully wrote grants creating an funding the Arts and Literacy Festival, coordinated countless fundraisers and family activities and created the school's website. As her children graduated from CEL she became actively involved with the PTSA at Queensbury Elementary School where she chaired several committees. This past summer she over saw the Arts & Crafts project for Camp Annunciation at her church.
Rita was loved, cherished and admired by many. Her friends feel blessed to have been chosen to be part of her life and looked toward her for her optimism, laughter and loving ways. She always made it a priority to organize special times with friends and family. Rita started a weekly breakfast club every Wednesday, and no matter how busy everybody was, she made sure they got together. She also started a book club and once a month all of her friends would meet at different restaurants to go over the book they just read.
On October 26th, 1996, she married Greg Buckingham in Queensbury, NY, where they resided with their three sons Noah, Jake and Luke and the family dog Wilson. Rita lived for making her family happy and taking care of her children. Being a mother came so natural for Rita and no matter how hectic things got you could always see a smile on her face. You could take one look at Rita when she was with her boys and you would know that there was nothing else or nowhere else in the world she would rather be. Rita could always be seen at all of her kids sporting events and school functions supporting anything and everything they wanted to do. She enjoyed going to Aruba every year with her husband, where they got engaged, and all of their weekend trips to Foxwoods. Rita loved all the holidays and cherished the time spent with her family. She had a way to make each Holiday seem bigger than it was. She became very close to her mother-in-law Sharon Buckingham as they often would grab the kids on weekends and hit all the garage sales they could.
Survivors include her husband Greg Buckingham of Queensbury, her three sons, Noah Buckingham, Jake Buckingham and Luke Buckingham, her mother-in-law Sharon Buckingham. Besides her parents, she is survived by one sister and brother-in-law, Jane and Phillip Hills, Croghan, NY, and two brothers and one sister-in-law, Andrew and Cathy Matulewicz, Penn Yan, NY, and Walt Matulewicz and his companion Debra Capron, Lowville, NY. Rita was also survived by many aunts, uncles and cousins.
Friends may call upon the family Wednesday, November 4th, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Regan & Denny Funeral Home, 53 Quaker Road, Glens Falls, NY. A funeral mass will be held Thursday, November 5th, at 9:30 at Our Lady of Annunciation, 448 Aviation Road, Queensbury, NY.
The families would like to extend their deepest appreciation to all of the nurses and doctors at the Glens Falls Hospital for all of their support and compassion.
Donations can be made in Rita's honor to the Center for Early Learning, 296 Glen Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801.
