Rita Stapleton Bauer is a fictional character from the CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) soap opera Guiding Light.

The character was played by Lenore Kasdorf and created by Bridget and Jerome Dobson, shortly after they became Guiding Light's head writers in 1975.

When she first arrived in Springfield to take a job as a nurse at Cedars Hospital, Rita began dating Dr. Tim Ryan (Jordan Clarke).

However, unbeknownst to him, Rita shared a past with his nemesis Roger Thorpe (Michael Zaslow) (who Ed had just found out was the biological father of the child, who was thought to be his, Christina).

Unfortunately, her past with Roger would come out while she was on trial for the murder of a wealthy, elderly Texas oil man, Cyrus Granger, for whom she had worked as a private duty nurse prior to coming to Springfield (she also became a suspect in the death of Granger's son Malcolm, who had followed Rita to Springfield, and then died under mysterious circumstances, after being admitted to Cedars).

Though she was hesitant to provide an alibi, it eventually came out that Rita couldn't have committed the crime, for she was involved in a sexual tryst with Roger at the time.

Rita briefly dated Dr. Peter Chapman, though he turned out to be more interested in Ed's ex-wife Holly Norris Bauer (Maureen Garrett).

Granger then confessed that it was in fact she who had murdered Cyrus (She was trying to prevent her father-in-law from changing his will to include Rita, unaware that he had in fact already done so)and that she was also indirectly responsible for the death of her husband Malcolm (she snuck into his room at Cedars and began berating him over her incorrect presumption that he and Rita had had an affair, causing him to have a fatal heart attack).

Before she could get the results, however, Rita spotted a clown at a charity carnival to benefit Cedars as Roger Thorpe (who was presumed to be dead, after having been shot by Holly).

Ed remained emotionally distant, and Rita began to have a torrid affair with Alan Spaulding (Christopher Bernau), who was at the time married to her niece Hope Bauer.

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.