Rita Branham Rodriguez

From the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, where Rita Branham Rodriguez was born, to Venezuela, New York, Chicago, and finally to Boise, a passion for history and its objects defined her life, wherever she lived.

When she arrived in Boise in 1970 with her husband and son, she organized antique study groups. She volunteered at the Idaho Historical Museum, helping with a Chinese exhibit. Through that work, Rita Rodriguez met and became friends with artist Cornelia Hart Farrer whose stories of Hart family history in Boise taught Rodriguez what she yearned to know. In her book The Blue Doorknob: The Life and Times of Idaho Artist Cornelia Hart Farrer, she creates a narrative nonfiction account of Farrer’s life in the early twentieth century and now shares this history with everyone.

Rita Rodriguez received her B.A. degree in education, with honors, from Radford University in Virginia. Rita was a founding board member of the Cabin, Boise’s literary center and received the Minskoff award for outstanding service there.

She has written for Boise Journal, Boise Magazine, and Idaho Magazine.