Funeral services will be held Sunday for Rita Karen Olsen Beck, the former First Lady of Costa Rica and a naturalized U.S. citizen, who died Thursday at the age of 95. Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. at the San Antonio de Padua Catholic Church in Curridabat, San José.

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Jan. 31, 1930, Olsen immigrated as a child with her parents, Walter and Karen Beck Olsen, to the United States. The family settled in Yorktown Heights, New York, after becoming naturalized U.S. citizens.

She later earned a master’s degree in sociology from Columbia University in New York. On Feb. 7, 1954, she married José Figueres Ferrer, then president of Costa Rica, becoming First Lady during two of his terms: 1954–1958 and 1970–1974.

Beyond her role as First Lady, Olsen also built a political career of her own. She served as Costa Rica’s ambassador to Israel from 1982 to 1984 under President Luis Alberto Monge and later represented the National Liberation Party in the country’s Legislative Assembly from 1986 to 1990.

She and Figueres had four children: José María, who served as president of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998; Karen Christiana; Mariano; and Kirsten.

Her daughter, Christiana, is an internationally recognized climate change leader who served as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and was recently honored in the United Kingdom as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).

Olsen's husband, José Figueres Ferrer, who died in 1990, remains one of Costa Rica’s most influential political figures. He served three presidential terms: 1948–1949, 1953–1958, and 1970–1974.

In his first administration, he famously abolished Costa Rica’s military on Dec. 1, 1948, a milestone the nation continues to commemorate annually on Army Abolition Day.