Helen Rita Kinney, 102, of Prairie Village, KS, formerly of Tinley Park and Homewood, IL, passed away March 7, 2026. The funeral liturgy will be 10:30 a.m., Saturday April 11, at Cure of Ars Catholic Church, 9401 Mission Road, Leawood KS. Visitation from 9:30 a.m. prior to the Mass, and lunch reception following. Burial on Saturday May 23, 2026, at Assumption Cemetery, Glenwood, IL. Celebration of Life immediately following the interment at St John Neumann Parish Hall, Homewood, IL.
The family requests no flowers and suggests memorial Masses be said by the parish or religious order of your choosing.
Rita was born May 26, 1923, in Waverly, KY, the first child of Joe and Mary Emma Thomas. The family, eventually including 3 sisters and a brother, moved to Joliet, IL, and then to Chicago in the late 1920s. She married John Adams Kinney on December 9, 1944, and was married for 20 years before welcoming their first and only child, John David, on October 19, 1965.
Rita attended Aquinas Dominican High School for Girls in Chicago and worked as a secretary, administrative assistant and sales coordinator. Rita retired after 20 years at McGraw-Hill publishing to become a stay-at-home mom in 1965. She returned to the workforce in 1974 at Richard D Irwin, later Dow Jones-Irwin Publishing, and retired from there, after 19 years, in 1993.
In 30 years of retirement, Rita was an intrepid world traveler, avid line dancer and line dance instructor, dedicated member of St Joseph, and later Cure of Ars Catholic Church, and a stalwart chair volleyball player at Claridge Court, where she resided since 2013. Her fondest tradition was hosting (or instigating) an annual Kentucky Derby party replete with homemade pimento cheese and mint juleps.
Rita was preceded in death by her parents, husband John, and sisters Betty and Jean. She is survived by her son, John (J.D.) and daughter-in-law Laura Kinney, grandson James (Jimmy) and Kathleen Kinney, granddaughter Carolyn Kinney, sister Nancy Rusnak, brother Jim Thomas, many nieces, nephews and their families, and friends too numerous to count.
Arrangements: Porter Funeral Homes & Crematory, 8535 Monrovia, Lenexa, KS (913) 438-6444