Norma D. Ricci

Norma D. Ricci, 87, of Riverside entered into eternity on Saturday, June 2, 2018. She was the wife of Ernest C. Ricci for 68 years. Born in Providence, she was a daughter of the late Louis and Josephine (LaRocca) Marra.

Norma assisted in the family businesses; Ricci’s Farm and Ricci’s House of Flowers. She worked as a Real Estate Broker with her husband for local and Florida real estate and was a Girl Scout Leader of Troop 971 in Riverside. A daily communicant of St. Brendan’s Church and a Eucharistic Minister for numerous years, she also volunteered as a Eucharistic Minister at Rhode Island Hospital. As a professed member of the Holy Spirit Secular Franciscan Fraternity since 1979, she served as Vice Minister and then Minister. Norma was a founding member of the Padre Pio Prayer Group in RI and helped provide donations to support the Padre Pio Foundation in Cromwell, CT. and the Padre Pio Hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. From the beginning, she was a pioneer and board member of the World Apostolate of Fatima, RI Division and also coordinated and led many pilgrimages to Fatima, Portugal, throughout Italy and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Heart in Washington, New Jersey. For 35 years, Norma and Ernie were custodians of a Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima that weekly visited homes and churches. She was instrumental in the making and distribution of rosaries and scapulars given to local schools, parishes and hospitals.

Besides her husband she leaves her daughter, Ginny Ricci and her son, Thomas J. Ricci. Norma was the mother of the late Mary-Chris Ricci and the sister of the late Phyllis Cardillo.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, June 9th at 10:00 AM in St. Brendan’s Church, 60 Turner Avenue, Riverside. Burial will be private. Calling hours are respectfully omitted. Memorial contributions to St. Brendan’s Church would be appreciated.