Full Name: Margaret ("Rita") Barksdale
Current Age: 28 (or so she claims)
Parents: Melvin (deceased) and Ruth
Siblings: Helen and Amy
Vocation: Employee at the Barksdale Bake Sale
First Appearance in Abruptly Amy: "A New Beginning"
Catchphrase: "Oh God, I'm so pathetic!"

Rita made her first appearance on Daria in the episode
"I Don't."  There, she was the proud mother of 21 year-old Erin
Chambers, who was marrying Brian Danielson.  We discovered that she and Helen had a testy relationship at best, and that Helen
was resentful of how much their mother had spent on the wedding
(and on numerous other luxuries given to Rita throughout the
years).  She and Helen eventually got into a fight, which quickly spread throughout the entire wedding reception.Once Rita joined the cast of Abruptly Amy, her character underwent several changes.  She went from being possibly the oldest Barksdale sibling to the youngest, dropping at least fifteen years in the process.  Gone, also, are her daughter and son-in-law.  We're told Alan Smithee's people thought there'd be more tension on the show if Amy and Rita were close enough in age to have some sibling rivarly (on Daria, Amy was virtually ignored by Rita).
Also, whereas Rita was originally just flakey, on A.A. she inherited a drinking problem, based on her resentment of her attractive older sister's accomplishments and of having  to work in the family bakery when she had once aspired to be a model. In "A.A. A.O.K" she entered recovery, but it's questionable whether it did any good. There are signs everywhere that Rita is as intelligent as Amy, if not more so.  She generally has more common sense, such as when she tried to warn Amy not to jump to conclusions about Andrea's mother in "A.A. A.O.K."  Yet she holds one thing in common with her original Daria character: she has incredibly bad luck with men.