ERIKA R. (Rittenhouse) BITTLE

     Erika (Rickey) Bittle (nee Rittenhouse) was a lifelong educator, avid reader & devout Phillies fan. She received her BS in education in 1977 from Glassboro College & was a librarian for Pennsauken Twp Schools for over 20 yrs. She was instrumental in starting the library program in Hainesport School and was a strong presence in the school’s PTA and Board of Education.

     Erika was the daughter of German immigrants who tried their hand at chicken farming in the 1930s. Although their residence was in Pemberton, NJ her father worked in NY City as foreman for a machine shop and her mother was a cook in NY City for the family who owned the Garcia Cigar company. Thus, Erika’s extended family, her aunt and uncles, helped raise her and helped to run the chicken farm. Her aunt would take turns staying home with Erika or working as a cook in NY.

     When Erika was 6 years old, she got a very special present: her father built her a doll house. Not something small but a 3 story house that was about 4 feet long, 1 ½ feet wide, and 2 ½ feet tall with working glass windows, electric lights, 2 balconies and a staircase, for which her father had whittled the posts and rails by hand. Erika used to comment that they didn’t have electric lights in their house but her dolls did.

     In 1942 when Erika was 9, two important events happened in her life. In February, her baby sister, Eleanor was born. In August, the chicken farm became affectionately known as “The Old Place” because they moved from Pemberton to Southampton, NJ. All their properties were taken by the military to eventually become part of Fort Dix. Her uncle’s house in Pemberton had only been recently built, when Fort Dix needed it. Erika’s father had designed its numerous gables and helped build the house. It must have been an attractive house because the military actually moved the whole house to Browns Mills to be a home for a General.

     Having a baby sister was fun and Erika said Eleanor was a cute, chubby girl with pretty blond curls. It’s a good thing she was cute because she liked to test Erika (at least when food was involved). Eleanor doesn’t remember how old she was but one time Eleanor didn’t want to eat what their mother had prepared and Erika tried to step in. Erika was rewarded by Eleanor throwing a can of soup at her! Another time, their mother had made a chocolate cake & Eleanor wanted to eat the icing but big sister gave her a hard time about it. So, Eleanor flung the spoon and hit Erika between the eyes! Erika got her back though. When their mother went away and left prepared food for them both to eat, Erika thought it needed a bit of spice and added cayenne pepper to their spaghetti.

     Erika went to high school at Pemberton High (the archrival of which was Rancocas Valley, the high school her children would later attend). It sounds like she had some fun times there especially in her senior year. Erika had a beautiful voice and sang O’ Holy Night as a soloist in the Christmas pageant. She must have sounded wonderful because the next year they invited her back as a special guest to sing it again.

     While in high school, Erika and 2 friends from the church choir auditioned for the Ted Mac Amateur Hour as the Magnolia Blossoms. They sang “Have You Ever Been Lonely” and “Have I Told You Lately that I Love You”. Erika also tried out as a solo act but never made it on the show.

     After high school, Erika received a $200 scholarship to attend a business school in Camden. When the owner of the school came to her home to talk to her mother and father, he offered further enticement by agreeing to provide Erika with singing lessons since she was interested in being an opera singer. During her first year at school, she sang at a banquet for graduating students but later gave up the opera lessons because it interfered with dating the love of her life and her future husband, Roland Bittle.

     The business school was where Erika met Roland. For a while, they were taking different classes but sat in the same seat and would leave notes for each other in the desk. Erika learned about Roland’s sense of humor early on such as when Roland was bringing her home to meet his family and pulled a prank on her by pulling up to a mansion and announcing “Here we are!”

     Erika worked at a bank for a few months to help pay for business school but considered her first real job to be as a Clerk/Steno Typist at Fort Dix. To get the job at Fort Dix, she had to take several Civil Service tests. At the time, you had to bring your own typewriter to the test and it couldn’t be a portable! She rented a typewriter which was so heavy that she and her mother had to fashion a handle for it and carried it together to the testing facility. It paid off though when she got the job at Fort Dix where she worked until she and Roland got married in 1954. They went on their honeymoon to St Simons Island off the coast of Georgia to search for Black Beard’s treasure. Unfortunately, they didn’t find it.

     After the honeymoon, they moved in with Roland’s mother and Erika got a job with a fertilizer company where she worked until their first bundle of joy, Roland, Jr was born! Erika worked until 2 weeks before she was due which was uncommon at the time. In fact, she didn’t tell work that she was expecting until she was 5 months along. Fourteen months after Roland, their second bundle of joy, Richard was born. Many summers were spent camping at Parvin State Park even while the boys were very young. Erika has mentioned the trials of camping with 2 boys in diapers at a time before disposables were used. One camping trip included a special guest: Chirp, a robin that they had raised from a baby. Chirp hopped around the campsite and rode on everyone’s shoulders.

     In 1962, Erika’s sister, Eleanor, had her first baby, Michael Jr, and Erika became a doting aunt. A year later she became an aunt again when Michael’s little sister, Michelle, was born. In later years, Michael and Michelle would take turns spending summers at Erika and Roland’s house while Roland and Richard took turns at Aunt Eleanor’s.

     In 1964, Roland and Erika decided to go into business and opened the Busy Bee Laundromat. Initially, they sometimes had as many as 16 out of 21 washers out of order so Roland, and Erika’s father, spent every night of the first few weeks repairing washing machines. Being small business owners never had a dull moment with washing machines overflowing, laundry smoking in the dryers, sponsoring a Little League team, and other fun times. When Roland, Jr and Richard were in grade school they joined cub scouts and Erika signed on to be their den mother.

     After a while Roland and Erika decided to build their own house in Hainesport, NJ where Erika resided until her passing. They moved in to their new house in 1965. The first few years in Hainesport was interesting- with droves of mosquitos, stinking cabbage crops next door and, of course, the birth of their daughter, Merrilee.

     Roland, Jr and Richard (& eventually Merrilee), went to Hainesport School. Erika became very active in the school, holding various positions in the PTA including President, Vice-president, and Publicity Chair. As Publicity Chair, Erika used her artistic talents to illustrate the publicity flyers by hand. At the time, the school did not have a library, so she and her good friend Dot Linton became very active in making sure the students had access to books. Initially, they ran a volunteer library in a partitioned-off section of the cafeteria; picture food flying over and under the partial-wall partitions! They strongly promoted the importance of reading and the need for a library. When a library was finally built, Erika was very involved in setting it up and running it. So much so, that when the library was expanded in 2002, they dedicated it to Erika and Mrs. Linton as the Linton – Bittle Library.

     Over the years, Erika continued to enrich the lives of the children in Hainesport in many ways. She put on several puppet shows with hand made puppets, scenery, and a puppet theater that she and Roland created. On multiple weekends, she hosted a story hour in the old 3 room schoolhouse that was enjoyed by many township children. With her PTA friends, she assisted with the school talent show which usually included acts featuring PTA parents in addition to the kids. A particular hit was the recurring Kitchen Capers Washstand Band which consisted of PTA members playing instruments created from household objects and wearing decorated colanders as hats! Naturally, Erika sang in the talent shows performing songs such as “He”, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”, a melody of “Sound of Music” songs with a group of kids, and Edelweiss with Merrilee accompanying her on the flute.

     Around 1970, Erika decided to go back to school to be a librarian. Going to college in her late 30,s she was not a traditional student, especially during an era of burning bras. She attended Burlington County College just after it opened when some of the classes were still in trailers and the summer was so hot that car tires sunk in the melting, newly paved parking lots. After graduating BCC, Erika attended Glassboro College (now known as Rowan University) and graduated in 1977.

     After graduation, Erika was hired as a librarian in the Pennsauken school district where she ran the main Central School library as well as several others over her many years there. Erika was in her element here reading stories to children, teaching them to use library resources and imparting her great love of books. For several years she hosted “International Day” which gave the 6th graders an opportunity to teach others about the dress, food and culture of the countries they had researched for their written reports. After Roland retired, he got to join in on some of the fun since Erika enlisted him as a library volunteer where he spent many entertaining mornings checking books out to little kids.

     In the mid 1990s, the Pennsauken School District decided to use volunteers to run the entire elementary and middle school libraries and Erika was transferred to teaching Pre-Kindergarten. What a change! Suddenly she was buying toys and craft supplies while dealing with 40 or so 4-year-olds on a daily basis. This was a good outlet for her creativity, such as the time she composed a parody of Old MacDonald Had a Farm, complete with hand drawn illustrations. The parents were invited to the school to see the kids sing the song (Mr. Conte Had a Farm) and show the drawings which regaled their apple picking adventure.

     After a few years of teaching Pre-K, Erika retired from teaching in 1997 after 2 decades of dedicated service. Even during the time that she had been teaching, Erika also continued to be involved in Hainesport School by dedicating 11 years to serving on the Hainesport Board of Education.

​     She and Roland enjoyed their new free time by taking drives – everywhere! When a Beluga whale appeared in the Delaware River, Erika and Roland followed his story and followed him – they drove to many of the spots he was seen hoping for a sighting themselves. They drove to Florida to visit Roland’s brother and his wife and to Niagara Falls where Erika was afraid they weren’t coming back when they realized (on the way out of Canada) that Roland had brought his baptism certificate rather than his birth certificate! A frequent favorite trip was to Long Beach Island and Barnegat Lighthouse. They also enjoyed the scenery of Pennsylvania, particularly the Lancaster area and, of course, Strasburg Railroad. Many weekends and evenings were spent relaxing at local outdoor concerts, watching planes at local airports or just driving around to check out interesting sites. In 1998, Erika and Roland took a vacation to Arkansas for a reunion of the fellow polio patients which Roland had been in the VA hospital with, 50 years before. This turned out to be the last big reunion of a group of very remarkable people and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

     Erika was a voracious reader and in retirement read as many as 200 or more in one year! She also took pleasure in keeping up with her soap operas, mystery shows, rooting for her favorites on Dancing with the Stars and, of course, following the fightin’ Phils. Erika and her sister Eleanor had a special bond and would talk every day but they were both Phillies fans and on game days there would be extra calls to celebrate a home run or commiserate over a bad play or poor game.

     Predeceased by her husband of 54 yrs, Roland Bittle, Sr. Survived by her daughter, Merrilee Torres (Ricardo), her 2 sons Roland Jr. (Donna) & Richard (fiancée Dorothy) & 4 loving grandchildren: Steven Bittle (Katherine), Andrew Bittle, Jayme Torres & Genavie Torres. Also survived by her loving sister Eleanor Flynn & blessed with many nieces & nephews.

     She was known for her kind demeanor, generosity & was famous for her puppet shows. She enjoyed working with children of all ages and instilling a love of books. Erika loved birds, horses, dogs, cats, flowers, sailing and spending time with her children and grandchildren.

     The viewing will be at The Lankenau Funeral Home, 31 Elizabeth St, Pemberton, NJ on Thursday, 7/25/24, @ 7-9 p.m. & Friday 9-10 a.m. Service and funeral to follow at 10:00 am.  The interment will be in Odd Fellows Cemetery, Pemberton Borough, NJ.

     In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made to the American Kidney Fund @ http://wwwkidneyfund.org/ or 800-638-8299

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