Mary O. Rice

Mary O. Holler Rice, M.A., 97, died Tuesday, June 7, 2005, at the Givens Estates United Methodist Retirement Community in Asheville. She served as an English teacher in St. Matthews. SC and Clemson University. She also taught Bible and English in China at the Laura Haygood Normal in Soochow and the Mctyeire School for Girls in Shanghai. She earned a B.A. degree from Columbia College, Columbia, SC, and a M.A. degree from George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, TN. Mrs. Rice was born in Chester, SC, daughter of a Methodist minister, the late Rev. Adlai Ellwood Holler and Mrs. May Cornwell Holler, South Carolina Mother of the Year in 1947. She was the fifth child and second daughter in a family of eight children. In 1933, she was sent as a teacher to China by the Women’s Division of the Methodist Board of Missions. She met a young surgeon, Dr.Edmond Rice there and they were married in 1936. They continued their work there until forced to leave in the late 1930’s as a result of the Sino-Japanese War. In 1953 the Rices were called back to the mission field, this time to West Pakistan where Mrs. Rice taught English and the Bible. Upon returning to the United States in 1961 the Rices lived in Clemson, SC where she taught English at Clemson University and Dr. Rice practiced medicine in Clemson and Seneca. They retired to Lake Junaluska and then moved to the Givens Retirement Community in 1984. In between and after mission work in China and Pakistan, Mrs. Rice taught in numerous schools of mission along the east coast, taught Sunday School classes and was a featured speaker at church conferences and meetings. She received the Wil Lou Gray Outstanding Educator Award from Columbia College. She was a charter member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of Global Health Action, a worldwide program training health and community leaders to address pressing health problems, initiated by the Emory University School of International Nursing. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, an honorary teachers’ society. She held office on local, district and conference levels with the United Methodist Women. Mrs. Rice is survived by three children and their families, Marian R. Sigmon and her husband Robert of Asheville, Dr. Lee Rice of Waynesville, and Louisa Goebel and her husband Paul of Hendersonville; four grandchildren, May Sigmon Castelloe and her husband Paul; Dr. Kiran Sigmon and her husband Mark Siler, all of Asheville, Paul Goebel and his wife Shelly of Memphis, TN and Mary O. Goebel of Spokane, WA; six great-grandchildren, Jordan and Ella Castelloe of Asheville, Joy and Leigh Siler of Asheville, and Reed and Isabelle Goebel of Memphis; and one sister Daisy H. Wilson of Rock Hill, SC. A memorial service and family visitation will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, July , 2005, in the Thomas Coke Chapel in Asbury Commons on the campus of Givens Estates on Sweeten Creek Road in Asheville. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Global Health Action, Inc., PO Box 15086, Decatur, GA 30033.