Person Page 315

Leroy Allen Holden was born on 18 December 1918.¹ He and Dorothy Marie Kurth were married on 10 November 1938.² He died on 23 June 1975, at age 56.^3,1

Jack Donald Rice was born on 11 May 1925 in Stanfield, Oregon.^1,2,3 He died on 24 February 2009, at age 83, in Culdesac, Nez Perce, Idaho.^1,2,3 He was buried in Western Montana State Veterans Cemetery, Missoula, Missoula, Montana.^1,31,3

"It's been a helluva good ride."

STEVENSVILLE - Through our Lord’s grace, Jack Donald Rice, 83, born on May 11, 1925, in Stanfield, Ore., our beloved “Ten-Acre Cowboy” (copyright 1984), surrounded by a lifetime scrapbook on his music room walls of his Eagle Watch Stevensville, “ranch,” on Feb. 24, 2009, checked out at 2 a.m., Montana nightclub closing time as described by fellow musician Bill Vogan.

At 6 a.m. break of dawn, on the deck of World War II USS Navy artillery-laden Liberty Ship U.S. Henderson--Lewellyn, fellow veterans caught Jack’s passing, saluted in formation, and shot off a cannon into the beyond ocean.

As Jack stated on his 2003 “Ten-Acre Cowboy” CD produced by Missoula’s Chuck Bloom:

In the U.S. Navy during World War II, I picked some guitar. In 1950, Bob Bartmess hired me in Pendleton, Ore. That life was for me! My bands played Pendleton Round-Up Cowboy Breakfasts, street dances, and all area nightclubs. We opened acts for stars Ernest Tubb, Ferlin Husky, Freddie Hart, Faron Young and others. It was an honor to work Bob Miller Trio for seven years on the road from Havre to Eureka, Calif. In 1968, Bartmess persuaded me to move to Helena. In 1989, my wife Cheryl and I moved to the Bitterroot Valley. It has been a pleasure working with the Northwest’s finest jazz pickers. To name a few: Bob Miller (Pendleton), Blackie Nelson (Helena), Dick Skultin (Corvallis) and Raleigh McNeal (Missoula). Good friends and top musicians have played in my groups: Smilin’ Jack’s “Trio, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Re-Ride, and In the Mood. I always try to work with people better than me to learn from them. Don’t know how I could be so lucky. Oh! P.S. I sing and write some too.

In the past couple years, Jack and Cheryl Holden Rice, married Sept. 14, 1977, in Grangeville, Idaho, on their way to Pendleton Round-Up, also lived in Culdesac, Idaho.

Jack gained strength and determination through belief in God’s will as charter member of New Life Lutheran Church, Helena, and member of Florence-Carlton Community Church, Florence. A charter member of Stevensville’s Veterans of Foreign Wars, he also belonged to musician and truckers unions and fraternal and musical organizations, including Montana Old Time Fiddlers and Five Valley Accordion Association.

Great-grandson of Dan Rice, the real or original “Uncle Sam” on military recruitment posters, and Amanda Window Rice, and fourth-generation to Pendleton, (Baker/Baumgartner) with pioneer and Cherokee heritage to Calder and Lewiston, Idaho (Rice/Clark) and Council, Weiser, and Payette, Idaho (Whiteley/Hudson), Jack was the only child of Frank, who is buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery, and Grayce Baker Rice. Raised by grandparents Charles and Alma Baumgartner Baker with horses a way of life, Jack symbolized old school independent thinker, (sometimes renegade) cowboy gentleman.

Jack’s last request, “Take good care of my kids; they did well for themselves!” includes sons, Dan (Teresa) Rice and Robert (Yvonne) Rice; daughters, Jacqueline (Gary) Arvidson, Kathryn Rice, and Richelle (William) Bishop; step-son, John Rice; step-daughters, Diana (Tim) Smith, and Kristi (Douglas) Gay; 21 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren with extensive family who were friends and friends who were like family.

Cremated by Sunset Memorial Crematory, tentative are June 7 celebration of Jack’s life and June 8 Honor Guard at Missoula’s Western Montana Veteran Cemetery because, as Jack told Cheryl, “It’s been one hellava good ride.”.