Remembering Rita

Those who knew Rita Dianne Best remember her with a beanie on her head, a toolbox in hand, and a compassionate smile on her face.

Best, a 20-year-old WSU senior, was found dead in her College Crest apartment March 30 after acquaintances told police she hadn’t been seen recently. A coroner’s report revealed she hanged herself the previous day. She had suffered a history of depression.

“When I got that call, that was the hardest moment of my life,” said Rita Bryant, the grandmother for whom Best was named. “I love my girl, and it hurts to struggle. I know it hurts to struggle.”

To commemorate Best’s life, friends, family, and fellow students held a candlelit vigil last night in the courtyard beside the WSU Fine Arts Building. About 100 people attended.

“She knew how to hook up a TV and use tools,” said her mother, Sharlisa Davis. “She knew how to write an essay, use a computer. I don’t know if she knew how to dance – I don’t know that. But my baby, she knew how to love, too.”

Davis said her daughter was a devoted churchgoer with profound love for her friends and family. She urged those at the vigil to communicate their problems with people who love them.

“Thank you to my heavenly father who lent her to me for 20 years,” she said. “I say ‘thank you’ because I’m grateful for my baby – my only baby.”

Davis drove Best and all of their belongings to Pullman three years ago.

“I grieved those whole three years because I knew,” she said. “A mommy knows. God just lent her to me.”

Che’vaniece Marshall, a friend and fellow student, recited a poem she wrote titled “If I Could Have One Last Conversation With You.” The poem reflected on Marshall’s memories of Best that included struggling through a psychology class and driving to McDonald’s.

Christina Osiri, a hairdresser at Na-Eehya Salon & Cosmetics in Pullman, said the brief times she shared with Best were enlightening.

“I did her hair about four times, and each time I met with her I felt like I knew her for years,” Osiri said, reflecting on the time she moved into a new apartment, and Best, still a casual acquaintance, showed up to help hang curtains. “She just took me by storm because not a lot of people will give you their service without barely even knowing you.”

Those who attended the vigil wrote messages to Rita on a cluster of balloons that were released one by one into the night sky.

A funeral service for Rita will be held April 19 at a cemetery in California. She will be laid beside her grandfather, who died at 17.