2023 Hall of Fame Inductee - Mrs. Rita (Drury) Lovelace
Rita (Drury) Lovelace
2023 Festus R-VI Hall of Fame Inductee
To say that the Mississippi River was on the mind of the 2023 Festus R-VI Hall of Fame Inductee since she was in high school would be an understatement. For Rita (Drury) Lovelace, the river, and protecting her town from it, has been a lifelong project. Born April 4, 1937, Rita Lovelace graduated from Festus High School in 1955. During her high school days, Lovelace was a member of the “Plan Progress Committee,” a group of students dedicated to improving the City of Festus. Because of flooding in previous years, finding a way to prevent it was part of the committee’s agenda. “This probably planted a seed for my future involvement,” Lovelace said.
Then came 1993. Following the Great Flood of ‘93, Lovelace got to work. She began attending every city council meeting in Festus and Crystal City. Building on the work of an engineering study performed in the 1950’s, Lovelace presented plans for a levee along the Mississippi River to protect the downtown area from future flooding. But it wasn’t easy. “It was just like I had the door slammed in front of me every time I approached them about it,” she said. It was slow going, but in 1996, a citizen’s group headed up by Lovelace successfully got voters to approve a sales tax to pay for the Twin Cities’ share of levee construction and maintenance costs. Working with the Army Corps of Engineers and then-Representative Richard Gephardt, Congress approved the design and construction of the Festus-Crystal City Levee in 1999 and funded the project at 75%. The cities of Festus and Crystal City agreed to pay the other 25% along with future maintenance costs.
Festus and Crystal City created the Levee Commission and appointed Lovelace the director of the commission. It was an unpaid, non-voting position. But that didn’t stop her from rolling up her sleeves and getting to work. The commission was responsible for: acquiring property needed for the levee, relocating anyone displaced by the levee, acquiring flood easements from the Elks Club and Twin City Little League, coordinating levee construction with the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant behind the levee, and planting 3500 trees in what is now Crites Park to replace trees lost to the levee.
The levee became operational in 2006 and was totally completed in 2013. Since that time the Mississippi River has risen five times, each time, the levee prevented flooding at the intersection of Truman Boulevard and Bailey Road and in other parts of the Twin Cities. In 2008, without the levee, there would have been nearly four feet of water in the intersection. In 2019, the levee prevented a flood of nearly 11 feet. One Hall of Fame committee member noted, “Without the work of Rita Lovelace, Festus and Crystal City Main Streets would not be what they are today. It’s because of her work, the downtown areas are seeing a revitalization.”
The levee now bears her name: The Rita R. Lovelace Levee. She has also won numerous awards for her work including the KJFF 110-Percent Award, the Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major Award, and the BPO Elks “Citizen of the Year Award. It is now the honor of the Festus R-VI School District to add “30th member of the Festus R-VI Hall of Fame” to her list of accomplishments.