Hendrick Joseph Degruise
August 17, 2021
Carl Kimble
August 17, 2021
January 21, 1927 – August 5, 2021
Rita Delores Roell Skidmore, a native of Mobile, AL and resident of Houma, LA passed away August 5, 2021, at the age of 94 in New Orleans, LA. A rosary and memorial mass for family will be held at St Bernadette’s Catholic Church in Houma.
She is survived by her children Rita Ann Roell of Daphne, AL, Floyd Roell Jr. (Sally Betser) of West Linn, OR and John Roell of Napoleonville, LA; ten grandchildren; sixteen great-grandchildren; and three great-great grandchildren.
She is preceded in death by her parents Ernest Raphael “Ike” Felis and Nellie Matilda Barnett; husbands Floyd Edgar Roell Sr. and James R. Skidmore; and sister Frances Felis Kohls.
She attended Convent of Mercy High School in Mobile, AL and worked in defense plants at Brookley AFB during WW II, calibrating flight instruments for military planes. Over the years she worked with her father designing and building floats for many of Mobile’s most prominent mystic societies -and was proud to be the first lady working in the warehouses-including the Polka Dots, Mystics of Times, Crewe of Columbus, Maids of Mirth, Comic Cowboys, Mobile’s Floral Parade, and the Order of Inca. She was also instrumental, along with her father, in starting the Joe Cain procession, attending the original gathering in 1967 with her family in the Old Church Street Cemetery. Later, she worked with her husband Floyd to design and build floats for the Gulf Coast Carnival Association in Biloxi, MS. She was also a founding member of the Order of Polka Dots in 1959, and designed the logo/emblem for the Polka Dots (the original masked lady in a polka dot dress can be seen at the Mobile Carnival Museum), and with her father Ike Felis designed and built the first dragons and emblem float of the Mystics of Time. Her husband Floyd Roell Sr. was a founding member of the MOTs.
Having lost her mother at an early age she and her sister grew close with their many aunts and cousins in Mobile and across the gulf coast, learning from them how to cook and sew. She became a talented artist, seamstress, and a wonderful creole cook-known for her potato salad and the “best damn pot of gumbo this side of heaven”. She was a big football fan and rarely missed a New Orleans Saints game.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a memorial gift to the Mobile Carnival Museum, or the Order of Polka Dots.
Samart Funeral Home of Houma, West Park is in charge of arrangements.
