Connie Lynn Ritchie

Connie Lynn Petet Ritchie passed away peacefully, surrounded by family on August 1, 2024.

Born to James Edwin and Shirley Marie Petet, July 8, 1957, Connie began her journey in Independence, Missouri and lived the whole of her life in the eastern Jackson county area.

She was a Truman High School honor student, participated in orchestra, and was active in Girl’s State through American Legion post 21. In 1974 she competed in the Miss Independence pageant. 

Connie worked the evening phlebotomy shift at the Independence Sanitarium and Hospital where she met her husband of 45 years. While there she developed an interest in laboratory medicine. That interest took off, and in 1980 she graduated from U.M.K.C with a bachelor’s degree in biology. After a year’s internship at Menorah Medical Center, she landed a position back at the Sanitarium as a medical technologist specializing in chemistry and blood bank procedure.

Few people had as many and varied interests as Connie. She loved music, learning to play cello, piano, and harp. Her playing of Celtic/Irish ballads and laments could literally bring a tear to your eye.

She was also a gifted fiber artist. No stretch of yarn or thread was safe around her; she would turn it into something pretty or useful. She’d buy sheep skins and spin her own yarn and then dye and weave it into beautiful scarves or hangings. Her upstairs loft held wheels, sewing and embroidery machines, and three looms. It was her playroom and sanctuary.

Connie was also a world traveler having seen much of Europe, Great Britain, and the continental United States. In the 1990’s, She and her husband Randy were also volunteers on several paleontology digs in the desert southwest. 

History and antique collecting were also among her passions, spending many weekends with her parents and sister Patty chasing down Arts & Crafts furniture, porcelain dolls, and decorative glassware for their own collections or to list on eBay.

But of all these, her greatest interests were her niece Lucy and nephew Luke, to whom she passed on countless memories and every bit of love and wisdom. Two freewheeling children have indeed grown into two fine young adults.

Connie retired from laboratory science in May of 2019 hoping to ease into a quiet and long retirement, but such was not to be.
She is survived in her immediate family by her husband Randy; sister Patty; brother James “David” and his wife Melinda.

You will be greatly missed, Connie. For decades you were the matriarch of our family - the master planner, the shoulder we leaned on, the helping hand. 

See you on the other side…