MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- Rita Palmer James, 83, of the Hopkins Care Center, Hopkins, Minnesota, and formerly of 5508 14th Ave. South, Minneapolis, died Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002 at the Care Center.

She was born at the Exeter Hospital on February 23, 1918, the daughter of Charles D. and Bernice (Glidden) Palmer of Hampton, was raised in Hampton, and graduated from Hampton Academy in 1936.

She is a direct descendant of one of the first settlers of Hampton, William Palmer.

She attended and was graduated from the Deaconess Hospital Nurses Training, Boston, in 1939.

After working as a nurse in Boston, she joined the US Army Nurses Corp. and in 1940 and was assigned to Clark Field Hospital in the Philippines. She servedin WWII in field hospital in Bataan and Corregidor until the American surrender there, in which she was wounded and taken prisoner. She spent 3 years as a prisoner of war in Santa Tomas until the American liberation in 1945. She was awarded the Purple Heart and Oak Leaf Cluster for her military service.

She is survived by two daughters, Katherine Mullin of Minneapolis and Barbara Wagar of Eugene, Oregon; two sons, Douglas James of Durham, North Carolina and Richard James of Minneapolis; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a brother, Ansell Palmer of Hampton.

She was predeceased by her husband, Lloyd James of Minneapolis.

A memorial service at the Congregational Church in Rye will take place at a later date.

Memorial donations may be made to the Hampton Historical Society, Hampton, NH 03842.