Mary Alice née Graves Rice (1948 – 2025)

Mary Alice née Graves Rice, 77, of Front Royal, VA, passed away at Commonwealth Senior Living on January 17, 2025, surrounded by her family.

Mary Alice née Graves Rice

Mary Alice was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Harvie and Rayma Graves. She was a natural-born teacher. From an early age, she took on the task of teaching her younger sister and often gave her assignments such as reading Huckleberry Finn. When her sister refused to read it, she sat her down under a tree and read five chapters a day to her (with explanations, of course!).

She attended the University of Central Arkansas and graduated with honors in a triple major (English, French, Mathematics). She also attended the University of Oregon in Comparative Literature, where she met her future husband, Robert C. Rice. They were married four years later, on June 29, 1973, at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue in New York City. Mary Alice completed her M.A. Degree but forwent her doctorate to support her husband while he completed his doctoral dissertation.

Mary Alice was received into the Catholic Church in May of 1976.  While living in Michigan, she and her husband were a Teaching Couple for the Couple to Couple League for Natural Family Planning.

In August 1981, they moved to Front Royal, Virginia, to join the faculty of the newly established Christendom College. Mary Alice was hired to teach Elementary and Intermediate French part-time. She also taught Grammar Workshops, where she came to know and be known by many students over her 40 years of teaching. She provided great food and homemade cookies at her study sessions, opened her home, and became a kind of mother-away-from-home to many students.

For many years, she not only raised beautiful flowers at her house but also saw to the flowers and gardens at Christendom College, planting, watering, and pulling out weeds to keep things beautiful. She is remembered by her children, grandchildren, and students for always caring about anyone she met and having a quick wit (and cookies!). She found her work at Christendom to be the fulfillment of her academic vocation and a great blessing for her life in serving Christ and His Church.

She is survived by her husband, Robert; children, Gregory (Courtney), James (Mary), and Elizabeth (David); and grandchildren, Bernadette, Nathaniel, Maria, John, Matthew, Katherine, Charles, Augustine, Peter, Daniel, Ambrose, Basil, Cecilia, and Phoebe. She is also survived by a brother, Dallas (Charla), and a sister, Dian (Bill).

She was proceeded in death by her parents, Harvie and Rayma; and sister, Nancy.

A viewing will be held at Christendom College Old Chapel Hall on Wednesday, January 22, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. At 3 p.m., a Divine Mercy chaplet will be said, and a rosary will be said at 7 p.m.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St John’s Catholic Church, 120 W. Main St., Front Royal, VA, on Thursday, January 23, at 10 am.  A private burial will follow.  A reception will be held at Christendom College Old Chapel Hall at 12:30 pm.