Obituary of Rita M. Schineller

Rita Maureen McNicholas Schineller passed peacefully on March 14, 2022 on Long Island, NY. Rita was born on December 21, 1933 in Brooklyn, NY, the youngest of James and Sara McNicholas’s five children. She was predeceased by her siblings Joseph, James, Kathleen (Kay), and Sr. Mary Verity, O.P.. Rita spoke fondly of her childhood cat, Snowy, and often recalled following her older siblings to school with such consistency that the nuns allowed her to enroll early at St. Sylvester’s. She graduated from St. Agnes in Rockville Centre and worked as a court stenographer. After meeting in a CYO Bowling League, Rita married her loving and devoted husband, H. Joseph Schineller, on July 23, 1960. Together they moved to Long Island and raised five children in North Massapequa, NY. She volunteered for Maria Regina School and local scouting troops before returning to work transcribing medical records with the earliest word processor software. Along the way she invented ‘extreme-couponing’. Rita was a tremendous cook and baker, always welcomed friends with lasagna and chocolate chip ‘triangle’ cookies, made the best crumb cake you ever had, and rarely turned down an offer of ice cream with her grandkids. Rita is remembered as a loving mother to her five children, Maureen (James) Lomenzo, Kathie (Gerry) Ring, John (Jenice) Schineller, Bill (Suzanne) Schineller, and Joe (Kate) Schineller, and grandmother to her eleven grandchildren, Christopher, Daniel, Devin, Molly, Victoria, Callie, Kerry, Katia, Drew, Jonathan, and Ryan (as well as her many grand-dogs). Visitation will be held at the William E. Law Funeral Home in Massapequa on Thursday, March 17 from 2-4pm and from 7-9pm. Funeral Mass to be held at Maria Regina Church in Seaford at 9:45am Friday, March 18. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI.org), the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville - Bethany House (bhny.org/donate), or Dominican Youth Movement USA (dymusa.org/donate/).