ROSA JANE CIGAINERO

Funeral mass for Rosa Jane Cigainero, 65, of Jacksonville, was at 10 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church with Father Mark Kusmirck officiating. Burial was in Jarratt Cemetery.

Mrs. Cigainero died April 18. She was born in Greensburg, Ind. Dec. 27, 1941, to Clarence E. and Sara Estelle Davis. She was reared in Texarkana, where she graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in 1960. She married her childhood sweetheart, Larry Joe Cigainero in 1962 and they moved to Denton. In 1966 the family moved to Jacksonville.

She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in education from the University of Texas at Tyler, and her master's degree from Stephen F. Austin State University. She devoted 28 years to education, working as a fifth grade teacher at East Side Elementary, then as a seventh grade language arts teacher at Jacksonville Middle School.

Mrs. Cigainero was a member of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church where she served as cantor for 35 years. She also was president of the Beta Alpha Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma for two years.

She was preceded in death by her father and mother, as well as her son, Joey, who died in a plane crash in 1991 while playing keyboards for Reba McEntire. Survivors are her husband, Larry Joe Cigainero of Jacksonville; her daughter and son-in-law, Laura and Andrew Pitts of Spring; and her three grandsons, Joey, Jeffrey, and Jeremy Pitts of Spring.

Pallbearers were Randy Decker, Charlie Jones, Chuck Hopson, James Abell, Gary (Butch) Garrison, Wilbur Chancey, Walter Volz and Ron Weidenbach. Memorials may be made to Hospice of East Texas, 4111 University Blvd., Tyler 75701.