Longtime Centralia resident, Therese Anne Rice, died Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 in Eagle Creek, Oregon. She was 90.
A funeral mass was held at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at 11 a.m. on Friday Sept. 17, 2021.
Therese was born on April 17, 1931 in the home that her parents built in Fords Prairie in the 1920s, prior to being known as part of Centralia. She was the daughter of Bessie and Anthony Rice and she was the youngest of five children.
In July 1950 at 19 years of age she entered the Sisters of St. Dominic in Tacoma. As a member of that community for 14 years she taught first and fourth primary grades. In 1964, she returned home to help care for her parents and the family farm. Therese loved the farm and the farm animals. She raised calves for beef and also sheep and pigs.
Along with the responsibilities of being back home she then worked for the Timberland Regional Library System as an equipment and facility manager for 28 and a half years. Therese also started her own yard maintenance business where she cared for many yards. She retired from the library system in 1992, but wasn’t finished with her life of service. She then worked for St Mary’s Parish as liturgy coordinator for 11 years and retired in 2005.
In 2014, Therese had a stroke which left her right side paralyzed and she never walked again. She lived the last seven years in adult foster homes where she received the assistance she needed.
Therese was very proud to be the youngest of all the siblings and she outlived them all. Siblings included Dorothy, 82; Bernard, 20; Father John Rice, 83; and Edward 81.
She is survived by her three nieces Mary Levy, Alice Ghiglia, and Ruth Deitz; and four nephews Tom, Bernie, Rich and Kevin Rice, whom she loved dearly.
In lieu of flowers, her request is to have church masses for the souls in purgatory or to contribute to the St. Vincent de Paul society at St. Mary’s parish to help the local people.
