Thomas Ira Rice

Brief Life History of Thomas Ira

When Thomas Ira Rice was born on 18 November 1891, in Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona, United States, his father, Thomas Isaac Rice, was 31 and his mother, Anne Rebecca Brawley, was 18. He married Ruth Elizabeth Knutson on 20 September 1913. He died on 22 April 1946, in Buckeye, Maricopa, Arizona, United States, at the age of 54, and was buried in Tempe Double Butte Cemetery, Tempe, Maricopa, Arizona, United States.

Photos and Memories (6)

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Family Time Line

Thomas Ira Rice
1891–1946
Martha LaVerna Williams
1884–1974
Marriage: 29 June 1929

Sources (11)

  • Thomas Rice, "United States Census, 1940"
  • Thomas I. Rice, "Arizona Marriages, 1865-1949"
  • Thomas Ira Rice, "United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942"

Spouse and Children

World Events (8)

1896 · Plessy vs. Ferguson

A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities if the segregated facilities were equal in quality. It's widely regarded as one of the worst decisions in U.S. Supreme Court history.

1898 · War with the Spanish

After the explosion of the USS Maine in the Havana Harbor in Cuba, the United States engaged the Spanish in war. The war was fought on two fronts, one in Cuba, which helped gain their independence, and in the Philippines, which helped the US gain another territory for a time.

1906 · Saving Food Labels

The first of many consumer protection laws which ban foreign and interstate traffic in mislabeled food and drugs. It requires that ingredients be placed on the label.

Name Meaning

Welsh: Anglicized pronunciation of one of the most common Welsh personal names, Rhys, from a form originally meaning ‘rash, impetuous’, also spelled Rys and Re(e)s. See also Reese , with which it is interchangeable as a result of different Anglicized forms of the Welsh vowel y, and also compare Preece and Price . Initial R- in Welsh is voiceless and often spelled Rh-, but in English R- is voiced as in the Anglicized surnames Rees and Rice. Welsh y is a short back vowel /ɪ/. In the medieval period the English approximation of this vowel was either /i/ or /e/, lengthened to /i:/ and /e:/. Subsequent sound changes in English produced the alternative pronunciations represented in Rees, Preece and Rice, Price. The name has also been established in Ireland from an early date.

English: either a topographic name for someone who lived in or near a thicket (Middle English ris, rice, ris, from Old English hrīs, Old Norse hrís), or a habitational name for someone who came from a place called with this word, such as Rise (East Yorkshire).

English: perhaps a nickname from Middle English Rys(e) and Re(e)s which when without a preposition could derive from one or other of several Old French and Middle English words, including Anglo-Norman French ris ‘laughter, smile’, Middle English ris, res ‘stem, stalk’, in origin the same word as in 2 above, and Middle English ris, rise, rice, res, Old French ris, riz ‘rice’, perhaps a nickname for a rice dealer or a cook.

Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.

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