Richard L. Rice
The funeral service for Richard L. Rice, 76, will be at 10 a.m. Friday in the First United Methodist Church. Pastors Nancy Gammill and Claudia Bakely of the church will conduct the service. Burial will be in Memorial Lawn Cemetery with military honors by the United States Marine Corps, Topeka.
Mr. Rice died Monday at his home.
Richard L. Rice, the son of Arthur James and Mary Alpha Davis Rice, was born Sept. 27, 1930, in Merriam. He married Loretta A. Spiker on March 28, 1954, in Horton. She survives.
He had been in the Marine Corps for more than 20 years before retiring as a master sergeant in 1971. He worked for 13 years as a storeroom supervisor at Iowa Beef Processors here.
Mr. Rice was a member of the First United Methodist Church; the Lowry-Funston Post 1980, Veterans of Foreign Wars; Ball-McColm Post 5, American Legion; and a long-time member of the Emporia Bowling Association, for which he served as a director the past several years.
He is survived by two daughters, Karen Sue Flood of Emporia and Patricia A. Ebner of Laytonsville, Md.; one brother, Merwin B. Rice of Osawatomie; three sisters, Ethelyn Morgan of Fontana, Emma Wolfe of Raytown, Mo., and Roberta Woodall of Macks Creek, Mo.; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by one son, Richard Lee Rice; one brother, Ernest Rice; three half-brothers; and a half-sister.
The family will meet friends from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday in Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home. Memorial donations to Hand-in-Hand Hospice or to the church may be sent to the funeral home, PO Box 175, Emporia KS 66801.