August 12, 1950 — July 4, 2024
La Cygne, Kansas
Rolleen Diann Stites, age 73, La Cygne, Kansas, passed away Thursday, July 4, 2024. She was born on August 12, 1950, in Parker, Kansas, the daughter of Rolla Everett and Helen Alice McCarty Hampton. Rolleen’s father passed away when she was a baby, leaving her mother to raise her and her four siblings on the farm outside of Parker. She met her lifelong friend Connie when she was only three, and the two have been inseparable ever since.
Rolleen graduated from Parker High School in the spring of 1968. That same summer she was united in marriage to Alvin Stites on June 14, 1968, at the Parker Methodist Church. Astute observers and the numerically adept will notice that she was not yet 18, and so Helen had to sign off on the marriage license.
Before they had been married a year, Alvin was drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam. The two had been living in Red Oak, Iowa, where Alvin’s parents were then living. While Alvin was in the Army and Vietnam, Rolleen lived with her sister Marilyn and Marilyn’s husband in Independence. She worked in an office in downtown Kansas City for an insurance company. When Alvin returned from Vietnam, the two lived at Fort Riley while Alvin finished his Army service.
They then moved to La Cygne and built their permanent home on land owned by Alvin’s grandfather and, in a poetic twist of fate, had been originally homesteaded by Rolleen’s great-great-grandparents McCarty. After moving home to La Cygne, Rolleen initially worked as a bookkeeper for the Linn County Co-Op in La Cygne. She continued working there until Rex started school. After that, she worked from home, keeping books for Rural Water District No. 3.
Rolleen was an avid reader; she enjoyed sewing, crocheting and cross stitch. She was a member of the United Methodist Church. She served for many years on the Parker Alumni Board. Family was always the most important thing to Rolleen. She could spend hours talking to her family—especially her sisters, Marilyn and Cheryl, and her “sisters” Connie and Naomi—whether in person or on the phone. She organized and hosted large family holiday dinners for both her and Alvin’s families. When nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews were born, she loved to make hand-made gifts for the new babies.
Rolleen was preceded in death by her biological father and mother. She was also preceded in death by her stepfather, Charles O. Haverfield; a brother, Philip A. Hampton; and a sister, Cheryl P. Erwin. Rolleen is survived by her husband, Alvin; a son, Rex Stites; a brother, Charles M. Hampton and wife Virginia; a sister, Marilyn J. Sheets-Rhoades; and three stepbrothers, Charles L. Haverfield and wife Linda, Robert Haverfield and wife Sheila, and Steven Haverfield and wife Rose.
Funeral service will be 2 p.m. Monday, July 8, 2024, at the Schneider Funeral Home and Crematory, La Cygne Chapel. Burial will be in the Prairie Home Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, July 7, 2024, at the La Cygne Chapel. Memorial Contributions are suggested to the Parker Community Historical Society. Online condolences can be left atwww.schneiderfunerals.com.
(Published in the Linn County Journal on July 6, 2024.)
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