Rita Sue Goldfarb

Rita Sue Goldfarb, 82, of Dallas, Texas passed away on May 6, 2021 in Dallas after a series of illnesses.

Rita was born on September 3, 1938 in Sedalia, Missouri and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BS in nursing. She was President of Sigma Delta Tau and chosen for Chimes, Mortar Board and Sigma Theta Tau, all honorary societies. After nursing, she became a stay at home mom until she moved to Dallas, Texas in 1972. 

In Dallas, Rita created The Group - a large singles organization at the Jewish Community Center, and was a marketing RN for Home Health Care & Hospice.  In 1979, she started her own company, Creative Organization, which produced many special events including Relocation Seminars, The Singles Network, The Singles Fair, Arts & Craft Shows, Psychic Fairs, a Financial Fair, a Jewelry business, Hand Painted Clothing, Snack Attack, Scents of the Zodiac and two fast food restaurants, including Mamarita’s.  Her friend and business partner, Barbara Fried, was involved in the success of many of them.

Her last and best career was being “The Ribbon Lady”.  After losing her mother when she was 12 and being a cancer survivor herself, most important to her was a Ribbon of Life; pink embroidered ribbons she created to support Breast Cancer awareness and education. She did this “In memory of my mother, in honor of my survival, and in hope for my daughters’ future”.  She started small and later added ribbons for many different diseases and causes until she reached every corner of the US and beyond, selling millions of ribbons. Her legacy will live on with her daughter, Janet, continuing her “mission”.

Rita was creative, kind, compassionate, loving, thoughtful, sensitive, generous, adventurous, endlessly curious, and always an entrepreneur.  She was always interested and interesting when you talked with her.   She was a collector, avid reader and news “junkie”.  She loved travel, theater, movies, sports, bargain shopping, the stock market, politics and fresh flowers. More than anything, she loved her children, her fur children and her friends, who were her extended family.

Rita took personal pride in making her corner of the world a little better.  She wanted everyone to know, not so much that she died, but that she LIVED. She lived a good life, with all its pleasure and pain, and  hoped those she loved would remember her in that spirit.  She will continue to live through her children and her friends who are all better for having known her.

Preceded in death by her parents, Joe & Dora Rosenthal, her mother, Rosa Kabaker, her sister, Carole Spitz and her husband Robert, and her son, Jeffrey Hawes, as well as close friends Peggy Specktor, Barbara Fried and Myrna Lyons. She very much loved her dog, Shayna, who was always there for her.

Survived by her daughters, Janet Goldfarb in Carrollton, TX and Debbie Goldfarb in Frisco, TX, brother Allen Parelman and his wife Jean in Kansas City, MO, brother in law David Goldfarb and his wife Giovanna in Mendocino, CA, numerous nieces and nephews, and a wonderful family of friends.

A private memorial service will be held on June 6, 2021.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the charity of your choice in Rita’s name.  Charities important to Rita included Operation Kindness, The North Texas Food Bank, Dallas Morning News Charities, Compassionate Friends, and Breast Cancer Research.

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