Ellen N. "Penny" Ritts, 86, of Zelienople, formerly of Nixon, died Saturday at Passavant Retir-ement and Health Center, Zelie-nople.

Born Nov. 8, 1919, in Bradford, she was the daughter of Karl W. and Lenora Somers Nichols.

Mrs. Ritts graduated from Warren High School in 1937 and from Penn State University in 1941, earning a degree in journalism. While at the university, she became a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority, which recently awarded her with a 50 year membership pin.

She worked 38 years for the Butler Eagle, retiring as the society editor. She was also a longtime member of the Women's Press Club of Pittsburgh.

In 1955, she was the first woman elected to the Middlesex Township School Board.

Acharter member of the Women's Club of Southern Butler County, she was honored for 50 years of membership in 1996. At one time four generations of Ritts Women belonged to the club together.

She also was a member of the Royal Subordinate Grange, the Butler County Pomona Grange and the Pennsylvania State Grange.

Mrs. Ritts enjoyed playing the organ and served as chairwoman and co-founder of the Pedal Pushers Amateur Organ Club, was a volunteer organist at the Nixon United Methodist Church and as an organist at St. John's Lutheran Church in Connoquenessing.

She was an active member of the Prison Fellowship Ministries and the Harmony-Zelienople United Methodist Church.

Mrs. Ritts also was a member of the General Richard Butler Chapter of the Daughters of The American Revolution and the Penn Panorama, a club for whom she wrote about the history of Penn Township.

She is survived by a son, William H. Ritts III and his wife, Linda, of Singer Island, Fla.; two daughters, Virginia Whitehouse and her husband Jay of Cranberry Township and Polly E. Conner of Saxonburg; and a sister, Nancy Louise Franz of Coraopolis.

Also surviving are two grandsons, Michael Conner and W. Henry Ritz IV, and a great-grandson, Colin Conner.

Mrs. Ritts was preceded in death by her husband, William H. Ritts II, whom she married Sept. 13, 1938, and who died in 1990, and a sister, Alice.

<B>RITTS</B> — Friends of Ellen N. "Penny"Ritts, who died Saturday, July 22, 2006, will be received from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at <B>Boylan Funeral Home</B>, 324 E. Grandview Ave., Zelienople. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. Burial will be in the Brownsdale Cemetery, Penn Township.Online condolences and directions are available at www.boylanfuneralhome.com.