By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

BUCKFIELD – Rita Tilton, who co-owned the landmark Tilton’s Market and became a landmark herself, died Sunday of cancer.

“She always smiled; she was always bubbly,” said Sheila Lipham, a friend for 30 years. “When somebody shines like that, they just kind of stand out.”

Tilton was born in Lewiston in 1952. She graduated from Leavitt Area High School in Turner in 1970 and from the Auburn Maine School of Commerce in 1971, her family said. She married Virgil Tilton soon after.

Tilton worked for an electrical contractor for a short-time before leaving to care for her children. In the mid-1980s, she began working at Tilton’s Market, a Buckfield grocery store her father-in-law started decades before and passed on to her husband.

The market was already a popular small town store when Tilton started there. She was shy at first, and was most comfortable stocking shelves or working on payroll.

“She was content to be behind the scenes,” her husband said.

But soon, Tilton joked with employees and sang her favorite Peter, Paul and Mary songs while the oldies station played on the store radio. Although she never liked being at the front counter – the center of attention – she got to know a generation of customers in her own way.

“She was pretty happy floating around fixing shelves and visiting with people” said Bobbi Cote, a longtime market employee.

Tilton, a mother of three, particularly enjoyed talking with children.

Gil Beaucage, the market’s butcher, was a child when his family moved to Buckfield. Tilton always went out of her way to ask how he was doing, to ask what was going on in his life.

“She was a fixture. Every time I came here she was here,” he said.

When Beaucage had a son five years ago, Tilton welcomed the newborn with a sign outside the market. Beaucage’s son roamed the same grocery aisles his father did. He grew up with the same sweet woman who asked how he was doing, asked what was going on in his life.

“There’s definitely a void now,” Beaucage said.

Tilton was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. After treatment, she thought the disease was gone. But the cancer reappeared throughout her body this winter.

Tilton, 54, stopped coming into the store, but her customers didn’t stop thinking about her. This spring, they held a benefit dinner in her honor.

Hundreds of people waited in line to get into the Masonic lodge for the turkey dinner. When the food ran out, they waited in line to drop off money.

In a small town known for its big benefit suppers, “her benefit was the biggest one we ever had,” said employee Kathy Laughton.

Tilton was too sick to attend, so family members videotaped it for her. Set on the stage, the camera captured more than 500 people, friends said. Everyone knew she was sick. Few knew how sick.

Tilton died at home on Sunday. She missed the birth of her second grandchild by one day.

The baby was named Emily Rita, after Tilton. Beaucage welcomed the newborn with a sign outside the market, just as Tilton had done for his son.

On Friday, Tilton’s Market will close at noon. A service will begin for Tilton at 2 p.m.

It will held at Buckfield High School.

“It’s the only place large enough,” said her son, Steven.