Charlie Loyd Rice Jr.

Charlie Loyd Rice Jr., was born March 14, 1922, in Inola, OK to Charley Loyd Rice Sr. and Elsie Lelia Ryals Rice. His father worked in the oil fields in Oklahoma and east Texas. The family finally settled in Longview, Texas and that is where Charlie and his eight brothers and sisters were raised.

In October of 1942 Charlie enlisted in the U.S. Navy and trained in underwater welding and ship construction after Basic training in San Diego. He was stationed at the Naval Landing Force Equipment Depot in Norfolk, Virginia and the Philadelphia Ship Yards. Among other duties, he repaired the landing crafts coming back from North Africa and readied them for the D Day invasion in Europe. At the end of the war he helped outfit the USS Bellona and they sailed to Pearl Harbor and onto Iwo Jima to clean up the island. The captain ran the new vessel up on a reef off shore and Charlie had to ferry the men from the ship in a landing craft across several miles to the island making 10 round trips or so before they were able to scuttled the damaged ship. He was discharged from the Navy in March of 1946 and returned to Texas where he worked building houses with his father. In 1950 he packed his carpentry equipment in his truck moved to Pasco. He had passed through there on a troop train during WWII and had liked the area. He worked on many constructions jobs throughout Eastern Washington including the second power house at Grand Coulee Dam, the Fast Flux Test Facility at Hanford, the Blue Bridge, Ice Harbor Dam, the grain elevators at Port Kelly and the JC Penney Building at Columbia Center and the former Pasco Masonic Lodge Building, among others. He also worked in housing construction and was a master craftsman in tile, Formica, cabinetry and doors.

He married his first wife Rosta in Pasco in 1951. After they divorced he married Martha Fries in 1964 and adopted her two children, Deborah and Hilbert. They divorced and he later married Lorene Long. After Lorene’s death he and Diane Lundstrom of Walla Walla were married in 2004 and he moved to Walla Walla. An avid gardener he always had beautiful flower beds and grew many vegetables and fruits to the delight of their many friends. Heirloom tomatoes were his specialty with as many as 50 plants each year.

Charlie was a 69 year member of the Masonic Lodge of Free Masonry, having been initiated in Longview Texas in 1949. He was a charter member and Past Master of Lewis and Clark Lodge #301 F&AM in Pasco and a life member of Benton Lodge #277 of Benton City. He also was a 66 year member of the Scottish Rite Bodies of Kennewick as well as a 64 year member and Past Patron many times of Beulah and Richland Chapters and Alki Chapter in Walla Walla of the Order of the Eastern Star of Washington.

He is survived by his wife, Diane; daughter, Deborah Donaghy of Boise; son, Hilbert (Portia) Rice of Elk Grove, California; grandsons, Justin Donaghy, Danny (Emily) Rice; and granddaughter, Carrie (Matt) Wolford; one great-grandson and various nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; three brothers and three sisters.

Graveside Services will be conducted by Benton Lodge # 277 and Beulah Chapter #132 at Riverview Heights Cemetery in Kennewick, Washington at 10:00AM Friday, February 9, 2018.

Memorial Contributions may be made to the Scottish Rite Early Life Speech Clinic of Walla Walla c/o or to a charity of the donor’s choice through the Herring Groseclose Funeral Home, 315 W. Alder, Walla Walla, WA 99362.