Re: Rita Schwerner (Dec. 19)

I found Toby Rossner’s article on Rita Schwerner interesting. I was friends with her sister when we were teenagers which was in the mid 50s.

I really didn’t know Rita very well. She was a couple of years younger than her sister. By the early 60s, I was married and came back to New York to visit my family. I called my friend Carolyn who said that Rita was going to be married. She put Rita on the phone and Rita said she and Mickey were going to move to Mississippi. She then put Mickey on the phone. ... The conversation was brief. I asked him why he wanted to move to Mississippi. ... and his brief response was: “I consider myself a Missionary.”

Carolyn and I lost touch for several years and when we connected again several years later, I then realized what had happened in Rita’s life.

I am guessing if you read up on her life ... she went to Rutgers Law School and remarried. I feel as though I touched upon a bit of history.

I am so glad that Mickey was awarded the Medal of Freedom

Posthumously ... well-deserved.

Judy Geller

Wakefield, R.I.