Eve informed Ed that she believed Rita had left San Francisco a few months after arriving there, because she feared she was being followed, and that she'd then lost contact with her sister; neither Eve nor Rita's mother Viola had any further knowledge of Rita's whereabouts. Eventually Ed was granted a divorce from Rita on the grounds of abandonment. The character was last referred to by name on "Guiding Light" in the late 1980s, during a conversation between Ed and Alan; she was subsequently referenced (referred to as "Ed's third wife" ) on two additional occasions during the 1990s.