Rita

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rita is a common given name (being a a shortened form of Margarita or Margherita), and may refer to:

• Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) - coordinates the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) research programs
• 1180 Rita, an asteroid
• Rita (genus), a genus of catfishes
• Educating Rita, a stage comedy (1980) and film (1983)
• "Lovely Rita", a song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Rita (album), an album by Portuguese singer Rita Guerra
  • Hurricane Rita, a major Category 5 and eighteenth storm in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Tropical Storm Rita (disambiguation)
• RITA, Réseau intégré des transmissions automatiques, "Integrated Network of Automatic Transmissions", a protected system of military transmissions first used in the French Army
• Rita - Queen of Speed, a roller coaster at Alton Towers
• Rita and Runt, a musical segment in the Animaniacs cartoon
• Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, a novel
• Rita in Hinduism, "Universal law"
• RITA Resistance Inside the Armies; Resister Inside the Armies; Resist Inside the Armies. Term invented by US Army Private Richard Perrin in September 1967. Became widely used during the Vietnam/American war. Later applied generally to Resistance Movements in many other armies
• RITA Award, the most prominent award in the genre of romantic fiction, presented by the Romance Writers of America and named after the organization's first president, Rita Clay Estrada

[edit] People

• Rita (singer), Japanese singer, lyricist, voice actress
• Rita Buglass Gluck, U.S. song writer
• Rita of Cascia (St. Rita) (1381-1457), pre-eminent Augustinian saint
• Rita Clay Estrada, American author and first president of the Romance Writers of America
• Rita R. Colwell (born 1934), U.S. environmental microbiologist and scientific administrator
• Rita Coolidge (born 1945), American singer
• Rita Cosby (born 1964), MSNBC news broadcaster
• Rita Crockett (born 1957), American volleyball player
• Rita Deverell (born 1945), Canadian television broadcaster and social activist
• Rita Donagh (born 1939), British artist
• Rita Dove (born 1952), U.S. African-American poet and author
• Rita Drávucz (born 1980), Hungarian water polo player
• Rita Guerra (born 1967), Portuguese singer
• Rita Hayworth (1918–1987), American actress
• Rita Johnston (born 1935), Canadian politician
• Rita Kalmbach, former Canadian politician
• Rita Kleinstein (born 1962), Israeli singer/actress known as "Rita"
• Rita Lee (born 1947), Brazilian rock singer and composer
• Rita Levi-Montalcini (born 1909), Italian-American neurologist
• Rita Mae Brown (born 1944), prolific American writer and social activist
• Rita Marley (born 1946) Jamaican singer, widow of Bob Marley
• Rita Moreno (born 1931), Puerto Rico-American Academy Award-winning actress
• Rita Rudner (born 1956), American comedian and writer
• Rita Tushingham (born 1942), English actress
• Rita Verdonk (born 1955), Dutch politician, former Minister of Integration and Immigration
• Rita Wilson (born 1956), American actress and producer

[edit] Fictional characters

• Rita Foster, a fictional character in the Canadian production Cypher (film)
• Rita Repulsa, a villain from the TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
• Rita Skeeter, a fictional character from the Harry Potter series
• Rita Stapleton, a fictional character from the CBS soap opera The Guiding Light from 1975 - 81
• Rita Sullivan, a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street
• Rita, a fictional red fox from the Danish movie interprise Jungledyret Hugo
• Rita Malone, a fictional character from the kids' movie Flushed Away

[edit] Organizations

• RIT Ambulance (RITA), a volunteer ambulance at the Rochester Institute of Technology