Dorothy Mae Rice 1930 - 2022

RICE, JOHNSON, BRANSTAD

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/29/2022 at 14:11:27

Sioux City Journal
4 September 2022

Dorothy Mae Rice

Sioux City

On Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022, Dorothy Mae Rice, beloved wife and mother of three children, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, passed away at the age of 92 from complications of dementia.

Services to be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, at Faith United Presbyterian Church.

Dorothy was born on Aug. 22, 1930, in Forest City, Iowa, the youngest child of David and Anna Sophia (Johnson) Branstad. Dorothy was an Iowa farm girl, always game for adventure. She was a girl who drove the tractor, ran the thresher, scaled up and swung from the barn rafters, shot crows, defended her friends on the playground, and caught and killed rats bare-handed with her dog Buster. After graduation from Thompson High School, she earned a teacher's certificate from Iowa State Teachers College (now UNI) and at age 18 taught in a one-room schoolhouse in northern Iowa, the first of many teaching positions in her life.

Dorothy met the love of her life, Robert Rice, in 1952 in Washington, D.C., where she was helping care for her sister Della's new baby. Robert was stationed in D.C. as a photographer with the Navy. Dorothy had been taking evening classes at Wilson Teachers College and, through a classmate, was set up with Robert as her blind date to the college's Sadie Hawkins Day Dance. They had one more date before Dorothy moved back to Iowa to receive her AA from Iowa State Teacher's College (UNI). She kept up a long-distance correspondence with Robert for two years until he was discharged from the Navy. They were married in Leland, Iowa, in August 1954 and enjoyed their love affair for over 67 years until Bob's passing in December 2021.

Dorothy balanced her career and family life, raising three children and helping Robert through his BA and two graduate degrees while teaching elementary school in Nebraska and Colorado. Dorothy also continued her own professional development while working and raising her family, earning her BA in Education from Wayne State in 1959 and a Master of Special Education from Morningside College in 1977. After moving to Sioux City, she first substitute taught and then, with her Masters, taught children with special learning needs from kindergarten to 3rd grade, first at Everett and then at Whittier Elementary Schools until her retirement in 1992. After retirement, Dorothy served as a classroom volunteer at Whittier until her diagnosis of dementia in 2017. Her greatest professional satisfaction was successfully teaching children struggling to read.

Dorothy and Robert were active members of Morningside Presbyterian Church (now Faith United) where she was involved in Circle, Clipper's Club and UPW, and served as an Elder for many years. She was a longtime member of the Morningside La Sertoma International Club as well as Shriner's Eastern Star. A first-generation college graduate and recipient of a master's graduate degree, she helped other women get a higher education through her decades of active involvement in the American Association of University Women (AAUW). She was proud to be a leader of the group which provided scholarships and support for women high-school graduates in Siouxland.

No summer was complete without a trip back to her beloved Thompson for Johnson or Branstad reunions. Family vacations always included a visit or extended stay at the homes of her brother or sisters. Starting in 1985, she and Bob organized 30 years of Branstad family reunions. She was proud to be Aunt Dot and played an active role in the lives of her extended family.

Dorothy enjoyed her friends. She loved to play golf with them in the Women's league at Floyd Golf Course and Green Valley. She could brag that she made two holes-in-one in her lifetime. She was a competitive card player and loved to challenge anyone to a game of garbage, gin rummy, bridge or cribbage. Coffee was her sole vice and she was known to regularly brew and drink a pot after 11 p.m. Decaf was not part of her vocabulary.

During retirement, she and Bob toured the world, traveling domestically to all 50 United States Capitals and internationally to China and Europe. She was especially proud to visit the original Branstad homestead in Norway from which her great-grandparents had emigrated in 1873.

Dorothy's life was dedicated to her extended family and her students. She derived great joy from being a mom and grandma and a teacher. She was a keen competitor and could always be counted on to be part of the game. Her delightful sense of play and patience enriched her teaching and all her interactions with adults and children. Tragically for all who loved her, dementia robbed her of her adult memories of being a mother, friend, and educator. Her family are comforted that the memories that remained were of happy times on the farm playing with her siblings and cousins, running to the schoolhouse and baking bread with her mother.

She is survived by sister-in-law Patricia Branstad of Roseville, Calif.; sister-in-law Janet Petersen of Bancroft, Neb.; brother-in-law Vern Hansen of Tekamah, Neb.; daughter Sonja K. Floyd (Patrick) of Sioux City; and sons John W. Rice (Kim) of Aurora, Colo., and David R. Rice (Joan) of Seattle, Wash.

Dorothy was preceded in death by her parents; and siblings Donna (Branstad) Floyd of Chula Vista, Calif., Engel Branstad of Pittsburg, Calif., and Della (Branstad) Fisher of Thompson, Iowa.

The family would like to express our sincere appreciation to Sunrise Manor and the staff of the Sunlight Center Memory Care unit. Also, we would like to thank St. Croix Hospice Services, especially Hope, Jennifer and John, for their dedication and care during our mother's final months.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in her memory to Faith United Presbyterian Church or to The Alzheimer's Association.