Mildred Marguriette Rice-Wanker

Mildred Marguritte Rice-Wanker (Cookston) was born 1910 at Tarkio, Missouri to extraordinary people to whom we modern men would likely not give a second glance. Her father was an un-treated diabetic with all the pitfalls of late adolescent onset; rages, and alternating mood swings dependent upon blood sugar. Her mother was as near a saint as ever walked the earth, giving care and service under the worst possible circumstances, and all the while maintaining a cheery upbeat personal touch to her care, waking her children each morning to her piano renditions of various hymns (she played and sang How Great Thou Art for me at age 19 when I visited her in the Watts area where she had a tiny apartment on Western Ave.). Her 13 children (10 girls and 3 sons) were a testimony to her devotion and duty as a wife and mother. My mother was cut from her cloth.

Married at age 20 to Samuel G. Rice born 1887, she was a full generation younger than he, 23 years difference in age. She came to his notice when she hired onto care for Sam's mother, Clara after she had suffered a stroke. Her care earned her a place at the Homestead farm at Neligh, Nebraska near the Elkhorn RIVER, east central part North of Omaha and within a 100 miles or so of the Black Hills of South Dakota.

She bore seven children to Samuel G. Rice, and 6 were born at the Homestead Farm at Neligh, Nebraska which was said to be laid out like the place where the Brothers Landed in New York many many years prior, with a curving road that looped around the farm and entered from the East rather than the closer West side of the Home. It was planted with Black Walnut trees in 1880 which shielded the home from the sun in Summer but let light and warmth through in winter. I, Dale C. Rice was not born in Nebraska, but rather in Woodburn, Oregon at the local Clinic run by Doctor Smith and Doctor James Deagen, the family physicians. All of her effort at self improvement and learning were carried through to the last years of her 96 years here with us and that determination and drive gave all 7 of her children the will to succeed. Most have arrived to their golden years, well fed, well educated, and well off. She was our Queen of Hearts, and her room was full of 14 family members when she transitioned to watch over us from a different plane of existence. Dale C. Rice 1948 last born