After 43 years, SEMO Christian Academy’s ‘Ms. Rita’ set to retire

SIKESTON — As a little girl, Lorita Ulmer always dreamed of being a teacher.

“When I was in third, fourth, fifth grades — we lived in the country — and I would get off the school bus, and the first thing I would do is go check the kitchen for a snack, and then I would get my mom’s old desk and I would play school,” Ulmer recalled.

Ulmer had her nursery rhyme book and her mother’s Bible, and she would play school, she said.

“I loved it,” Ulmer said. “I thought: ‘I want to teach in an orphanage some day. I don’t want to babysit, but I want to teach in an orphanage.’ … And why an orphanage, I don’t know.”

While she would never go on to teach in an orphanage, Ulmer, or “Ms. Rita,” as she became known to hundreds of students and their parents, would go on to work as a longtime preschool teacher at the Southeast Missouri Christian Academy in Sikeston, which first opened in 1978.

After 43 years working as a teacher and director at the SEMO Christian Academy, Ulmer is retiring. A celebration in her honor is planned from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 3 in the fellowship room at Shady Acres Church of Christ in Sikeston. Former students, families and community members are invited to attend.

Ulmer said she attended a one-room schoolhouse on Brown Spur Road (Route BB) in rural Sikeston until she was 10 years old, and her family moved to Diehlstadt, Missouri, where she went to school until her sophomore year in high school. Her father sold their farm, and she said he family moved back to Sikeston, where she graduated from Sikeston High School.

Through those years, Ulmer said she and her mother attended church in Sikeston, which is where she met her “sweet mentor,” Lois Hubbert.

“She was teaching the little ones’ class, and when I was 16, she she asked me if would like to help her,” Ulmer said.

She accepted and never looked back.

“That really spurred me on wanting to teach,” Ulmer recalled. “I’ve taught Bible classes ever since then. My dream came true — not in an orphanage but in a preschool. I loved it. I’ve always loved it.”

Ulmer volunteered the first two years SEMO Christian opened and then began teaching her first 3-and-4-year-old class in the fall of 1980. The school, which is located in a wing of ShadyAcres Church of Christ, just off Ables Road in Sikeston, started with preschool grades, then added kindergarten and a grade or one or two grades each year after, Ulmer said. She taught morning and afternoon sessions for a while before they turned into full-day sessions.

“Being a teacher was even better than I expected because I got attached to the children and their families,” she said.

Ulmer’s class sizes averaged 50 students per year, which equates to her teaching 2,150 students over the past 43 years. She’s even taught second generations, she said.

Kim DeHart, who served on SEMO Christian Academy’s board and as a bookkeeper for the school for 27 years, is one of the many lives touched by Ulmer. She and Ulmer have worked closely over the years and go to church together.

“She is one in a million,” DeHart said about Ulmer. “I could go on at length about her teaching over 40 years … and so lots and lots of lives and children have been touched by her sweetness.”

Both of DeHart’s children, who are now 29 and 36, attended SEMO Christian Academy. Her brother also attended the school.

“Ms. Rita is a very humble person and she amazes me,” DeHart said. “She’s wonderful. … We’ve shared every direction of life — from heartache to happy times.”

While others would disagree, Ulmer said she’s nobody special.

“Everybody is good at whatever they do,” she said.

Ulmer said she thinks her success in the classroom was realizing that all children are unique.

“They each require something different,” she said. “They all have their little personalities and little quirks. You just have to learn them and their little personalities and try to give what they need.

Outside of school, Ulmer would often get recognized by current and former students and their parents.

“If we’d go out to eat, my husband, Charles, would say: ‘Here comes one,’” Ulmer recalled with a laugh. “He enjoyed it too. He didn’t mind it at all.”

Her husband, or “Mr. Rita,” as some would call him, cooked hotdogs for the students on occasion, and at the end of school year, he came with his four-wheeler and flatbed trailer and give students rides.

“The kids loved it,” she said.

When asked what she’d miss most about teaching, Ulmer said: “Those hugs and smiles and the parents.”

Ulmer said there are too many sweet memories to mention, but she does have many stories saved to her memory that she will always cherish.

“There was something new everyday, some new mystery every day,” Ulmer said.

And while there were many times of happiness and laughter, there were also some sad times.

When Ulmer’s husband passed away in 2021, she said SEMO Christian Academy saved her.

“It was so good for me to come and be with these children and get my mind off things. It’s been a blessing,” Ulmer said.

Ulmer said she simply felt like now was the time for her to retire.

“It’s very bittersweet,” she said.

Ulmer plans to spend time with her new great-grandchild in Tennessee. In addition, she has two sons, Andy and Steven; and five grandchildren.

Ulmer acknowledged Shady Acres Church of Christ for being so gracious and allowing the school to use a wing of their building. While Ulmer is leaving, the SEMO Christian Academy will remain open and continue serving local children and their families, she said.

“I would jut like to say that I appreciate the opportunity of teaching the children that I’ve taught through the years,” Ulmer said. “I appreciate the parents so much for trusting us and bringing their children to SEMO Christian Academy.”

Ulmer said she’s made lasting friends and met precious people throughout the years, and she’s just grateful.

She said: “It’s been a blessing to me all of these years to be able to do what I wanted to do as a child.”

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Anyone who has photos or memories of Ulmer to share should email them by June 1 to: ehinsonuc@gmail.com.