Doctor's devotion as deep as a mine

Rita A. Mariotti, whose dream of becoming a wealthy South Philadelphia doctor changed after she cared for poor coal miners in eastern Kentucky early in her career, died of lymphoma Aug. 26. Dr. Mariotti, 78, of Glendora, who eventually practiced family medicine for more than 35 years in the small town of Woodbury Heights, died at a friend's home in Sewell.

The bright South Philadelphia High School for Girls student (Class of 1948) fantasized about being rich when she saw physicians' grand homes on South Broad Street. Her poor Italian immigrant mother, father, sister and brother pooled their money to pay her college tuition.

She earned a bachelor's degree in American literature at the University of Pennsylvania in 1952 and graduated from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1957.

During the last year of her medical internship, Dr. Mariotti's confidence and egotism waned. "We made brilliant diagnoses - and horrendous mistakes from lack of experience. We basically knew nothing about the real world," she wrote in her 2003 book,

The Coal Miners' Doctor

. "A sobering reality hit me: I was not ready to go into practice on my own."

Dr. Mariotti took a job at a hospital owned by a coal company treating Appalachian miners plagued by lung disease who were not used to female physicians. She was paid $12,000 a year – an astounding amount of money to her.

She also learned a lesson that would drive her career: That a doctor-patient relationship is a two-way street. She introduced the miners and their families to pizza, and they made her moonshine and hunter's stew - muskrat, raccoon and squirrel.

"As guest of honor, I was offered the squirrel's skull to suck out what was considered the best part of the meal: the squirrel's brains," Dr. Mariotti wrote. "I could not do it. I could not raise that tiny white head to my lips and suck the contents through the eye socket."

Dr. Mariotti started her private practice in 1960 in a three-story Victorian home in Woodbury Heights. The first floor was clinical offices, the second floor her living space, and the third floor a studio where she created beautiful stained-glass art.

"She drove a white motorcycle and wore a white helmet when she made house calls," said longtime friend Brigit Venable, who taught at Deptford Junior High School. "She delivered babies and cared for generations of families."

With a commitment to patient care that never reaped great financial benefits, Dr. Mariotti made personal family medicine her passion and way of life. As a prescription to relieve her midlife crisis at 50, Dr. Mariotti opened a restaurant in her home. She named it Le Bec Deux, an allusion to the famous Philadelphia French restaurant, and teamed with Venable.

Dr. Mariotti cooked and did the shopping, and Venable served and cleaned up.

Before she retired in 1995, Dr. Mariotti was the volunteer staff pediatrician in Nicaragua for Operation Smile, a U.S. group that treated children born with cleft palates.

In retirement, Dr. Mariotti took writing classes at Penn and began a second career.

Dr. Mariotti is survived by a brother, Henry, and several nieces and nephews.

There will be no funeral.

Memorial donations may be sent to the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, attention Meaghan Hogan, 3440 Market St., Suite 300, Philadelphia 19104.