Obituaries

Sr. Rose Mary Rizzo (formerly Sr. Charles Elizabeth), CDP died peacefully at Holy Family Home on December 27, 2025. She was a professed member of the Congregation of the Divine Providence for 78 years. Born in Covington, Ky in 1930 to Edgar and Florence Fugazzi Rizzo, she made her first profession of vows in 1947 and professed her final vows in 1952.

Sr. Rose Mary began her ministry of teaching in 1947 at St. Bernard School, Dayton, Ky. For the next forty years, she taught elementary school at St. John’s, Dry Ridge, Ohio; St. Michael’s, Kalida, Ohio; St. Joseph, Camp Springs, Ky; St. Louis School, Clarksville, Md; St. Leo’s in Versailles, Ky; St Camillus Academy in Corbin, Ky; St. Michael School, Wheeling, WV; and at St. Agatha Academy in Winchester, Ky. In 1987 and for the next ten years, she served at Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Kayenta, AZ where she provided pastoral ministry to the mostly Native American parishioners of the Navajo Tribe. She returned to St. Anne Convent in Melbourne, Ky in 1997 and coordinated transportation for the sisters until 2012. For two years she lived in Covington visiting and praying with residents at a local senior residence. She retired to Holy Family Home in 2014, where she kept busy serving in the community and tending one of the gardens.

Sr. Rose Mary was a kind and helpful sister, always finding little jobs to do for others. She loved to be outdoors, weeding the garden or planting flowers and she was as good with a wrench as she was with a hoe. She cleverly composed a little booklet to tell a story of an event while she was in Arizona. Her smile, her kindness and her friendly manner touched many people she interacted with over the years.

She will be missed by her religious community, the Sisters of Divine Providence, her brothers, Victor and Rev. John Rizzo, her sister Mary Hoffman and her many nieces and nephews. Her brothers Pete, Frank and Anthony Rizzo and her sisters Theresa Ward and Rita Haigis preceded her in death.

Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in Immaculate Conception Chapel, Holy Family Home, Melbourne, Ky on Saturday, January 3, 2026. Gathering and sharing of memories service begins at 10:00am, with Mass of Resurrection at 11:00am. Sr. Rose Mary donated her body to science research and her cremated remains will be buried in the convent cemetery at a later date. Memorials can be made to the Congregation of Divine Providence, 5300 St. Anne Drive, Melbourne, Ky 41059