Marie Teresa Rios

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Marie Teresa Rios, also Marie Teresa Rios Versace, (pen name "Tere Rios") (November 9, 1917-October 17, 1999) was the author of a book which was the basis for the popular 1960s television sitcom, The Flying Nun. Rios was the mother of Humbert Roque Versace, the first U.S. Army Prisoner of war in Southeast Asia awarded the Medal of Honor.

"The Fifteenth Pelican", book on which the T.V. series "The Flying Nun" was based.

1 Biography
2 1960s
3 Final years
4 Postscript
5 Bibliography
6 See also
7 External link

[edit] Biography

Rios' parents immigrated from Puerto Rico in the early part of the 20th century and settled in the New York City borough of Brooklyn where Maria Teresa Rios was born. She grew up in Puerto Rico and eventually returned to New York. Rios Versace was a devout Catholic who became interested in writing at a young age.

In the 1930s, she met and married Humbert Joseph Versace, a 1933 graduate of the United States Military Academy (West Point). Together they had five children, Humbert Roque, twins Stephen and Richard Versace (former coach of the Indiana Pacers), Michael and Trilby. As an Army wife, she traveled to different places around the world, including Hawaii, where her first child, Humbert Roque was born.

During World War II, Rios (now Rios Versace) drove Army trucks and buses. She also served as a pilot for the Civil Air Patrol. Rios Versace wrote and edited for various newspapers around the world, including places such as Guam, Germany,Wisconsin, and South Dakota, and publications such the Armed Forces Star & Stripes and Gannett.

She also taught creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh and was on the staff of the Rhinelander Writers Conference. In 1958, she was named "Wisconsin Writer of the Year". In 1963, Rios Versace published her first book Brother Angel using the pen name "Tere Rios". She soon followed that with another book, An Angel Grows Up.

[edit] 1960s

Her eldest son, Humbert Roque Versace, followed his father's footsteps and graduted from West Point. He was sent to the Republic of Vietnam as a military advisor with the rank of Captain. During his second tour in Vietnam he was captured, along with two other Americans, by the Viet Cong. Captain Versace was executed by his captors on September 26, 1965, an event which devasted her.

Unaware of the events of the tragedy which would emotionally affect her, she published her third book "The Fifteen Pelican" in 1966 and the book's dedication read as follow: "FOR THE ROCK (Her son's nickname) and the children and sugar people of NamCan". The TV series The Flying Nun, starring Sally Field, was based on this book. The popular sitcom was produced by ABC from 1967 until 1970.

Upon learning of their son's fate, Rios Versace and her husband tried to find out what they could about the circumstances surrounding his death. She went to Paris in the late 1960s, trying unsuccessfully to see the North Vietnamese delegation as it arrived for peace talks. Rios Versace expressed her frustration and anguish in poems.

[edit] Final years

Rios Versace was presented with a Special Forces patch and unit membership certificate. In 1970, a movement to award her son with the Medal of Honor failed and instead Rios Versace and her husband were presented with their son's Silver Star Medal. Her husband Colonel Humbert Joseph Versace died on June 12, 1972.

Rios Versace returned to Puerto Rico in 1990, retiring in the town of Fajardo. In 1999, she was diagnosed with lung cancer and she returned to the United States. She was hospitalized in Sarasota, Florida. Marie Teresa Rios Versace died on October 17, 1999 and her funeral was held at the Ft. Myer Old Post Chapel. Representatives of the Special Operations Command from Fort Bragg were present. Her ashes were buried with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery on November 12, 1999.

[edit] Postscript

On July 8, 2002, President George W. Bush presented Marie Teresa Rios Versace's surviving children with the Medal of Honor which was posthumously awarded to Captain Humbert Roque Versace.