Rose Marie Rockwell was born on March 12, 1939.  On the day she was born, her father Chandos wrote her mother Marie "Born ten minutes til 9.  Came back to the room 9:10.  Weight 6 lbs. 11 oz. The day our baby was born we had a thunderstorm, snow, and a rainbow."  And such was her life - a thunderstorm, snow and a rainbow.  She came into this world loved and wanted.  She has left it in the same way.

Rose spent her life as a teacher and educator of children and adults in Catholic churches and schools in Ohio, Alabama, and Texas.  Outside of her work, she was active in each parish she was a member of and in every ministry imaginable.   Most notably, in RCIA programs and as a founding member of the Basilian Lay Associates in Houston.

She was active in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.  She and our dad founded a coffee shop as a gathering place for civil rights advocates and wrote a column in the local newspaper calling out prejudice and inequality.  She marched and wrote and passionately worked for change.

When she moved to Houston, she accepted a position to teach theology at St. Pius X High School and went on to become principal.  She was the first person in the school's history to hold that position as a lay person.  It is remarkable, really, given the times and that she was a woman.  When she discovered a student was harassing minority students and teachers, she kicked him out of school.  She was sued by the KKK to reinstate him and his case was thrown out of civil court.  It was a strange time in Houston in the early 1970's – she weathered bomb threats at the school and parent protests over the school's sex education program.  It was not uncommon to see her in the news.

From St. Pius, she became Youth Director at Christ the Good Shepherd, then Dean of Theology at St. Thomas High School, and finally Director of Religious Education at St. Anne.  There is no way to quantify the lives she has impacted and changed .  She was a force and there is not a person who encountered her who will tell you otherwise.  She loved the Lord and believed it her mission to help you love him, too.

She has many friends who have loved her so well over the years.  And they will miss her – just as we will.  We pray for all her friends, as this is their loss, too.

It is so hard to get a sense of someone – of all that they are when your experience of them is limited to a specific role or environment, but we will try to give you an experience of Rose, as we knew her.

She will swear to you she has seen an actual werewolf – driving a car.  You couldn't convince her otherwise.

She gave monster hugs – the kind that wrapped up your whole body.  When she came in for a hug, you couldn't escape.  She hugged you until you returned the hug with the same intensity.

She had the kind of laugh when she was truly tickled that she had to throw her head back to let completely out.  And she would laugh and laugh.

She still believed, until about 15 years ago, that her grown children should sit on her lap.  She liked to touch you and be sure of you.  She said the first thing she did when each of us was born was count our toes and fingers.  And she did the same for each grandchild.  She never did say what she would have done had we had too few or too many but there was likely a plan for that, too.

She loved music, especially Neil Diamond and Simon and Garfunkel.  And she sang louder than anyone at church.  She wasn't in the choir and she wasn't an especially gifted singer.  But she sat in the first seat in the pew and sang for every single person in her pew, nostrils flaring with effort.  And maybe you would look at her and raise your teenage eyebrows pleading silently for her to tone it down or perhaps you would look down in mortification instead.  She didn't care.  She sang.

She was passionate – in her work and personal life.  She said if you didn't know the exact answer, you needed to act like you did and speak with authority.  No one would know the difference, she said.

She excelled at getting you to do things that you either did not want to do or it never occurred to you to do.  Almost always, after your grumbling and complaining, you were better for doing it and glad somehow you did this thing you didn't think you had the time or capacity to do.  It was her gift!  But not always – we still laugh at an old picture of her and my dad in Halloween costumes she made for his office party when he worked for Diamond and Shamrock.  Dad was a 6'3" green felt diamond and she was a shamrock – life size too – standing at his side.

She wasn't afraid of things most people are.  She and my dad would pick up hitchhikers in Alabama and even brought a man home to stay with us who had nowhere to go.  Annie found empty bean cans under her bed after one hitchhiker moved on.

She had an opinion on most everything.  There were very few things she didn't care about on some level.  She believed you should do the same.  She was especially passionate about politics and football.

She loved her Catholic faith and was an expert in church teaching and traditions.  She was somehow both an old school and progressive Catholic at the same time.  She could explain the impact and meaning of any recent church teaching, even in her retirement.  And yet, she buried St. Joseph upside down in every house she tried to sell.  She prayed to St. Anthony for help finding lost things, St. Joseph Cupertino for test taking, and had a saint to put in the refrigerator if you wanted to get pregnant – maybe St. Gerard.

She loved animals, especially every dog she ever had.  And her animals could never have simple names.  It was always an extravagance – Joshua, Minerva, Cassandra, Jeremiah, Amadeus.  She believed every one of those animals will be reunited with her in heaven.  She taught us that anything we love will remain with us.

She loved to cook and was excellent at it, and she liked to experiment with new foods.  She sewed, crocheted, and crafted and she loved to read.  She was curious about things but didn't spend a lot of wasted time worrying about things that were just easier to accept.

She loved the ocean and her happiest times were at the beach – whether in Texas or Alabama.  She would lay on a raft all day – with each of us girls on our own raft strung behind her, she - devouring some paperback book.  Maybe it was the feeling of eternity that drew her there.

As we went through her things this past week, we found a letter she left for us.   These were her words to us and this is our Rosie – our thunderstorm, snow, and rainbow -

"The best of myself that I leave you is my Spirit!  There is no need to divide it.  It is sufficient for all of you as is and has been, my love for you.   You have been throughout my life my greatest treasures.  I won't be far from you in death.  Count on that – trust that."

She loved and was loved extravagantly!

Rose is survived by her children Susan Hale and husband Rick, Debra Dehart and husband Doug, Annie Schick, and Kathy Jordan and husband John, by her grandchildren Daniel Dehart and wife Brianna, Anna Rose Dehart, Leah Jordan, and Samuel Jordan, by her brother, Rev. Martin Holler and her sister, Marie Alfieri and husband Joe, by her former husband and friend Ray Schick, and many nieces and nephews.

Her life will be celebrated on Thursday, July 23, 2020 at Christ the Good Shephard Catholic Church with a visitation with her family beginning at 10:00 a.m. and a funeral mass at 11:00 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Rose's name to St Jude Children Centre in Mahiga, Kenya, where her brother Martin is actively involved.  Rose has supported the St. Jude school over the years and has enjoyed watching it grow and flourish.  Checks should be made out to C hrist the King Church--St Jude Project and may be mailed to St Jude Project, c/o Christ the King University Parish, 75 Stewart St., Athens, OH 45701.