Jean Marie Rice (Jeannie McDowell) passed July 22, 2020, in North Bend, Oregon. She was born Nov. 21, 1940, to Alice Mae and Lloyd (Mac) McDowell in Helena, Montana. Jeannie grew up in Eugene, Oregon. She moved her young family to Alaska in 1963. She lived in Sitka and then Ketchikan, where she was raising her three children when she met and married Capt. Cecil Rice while working as a 911 dispatcher. They had a daughter together and raised their family on “The Rice Paddy,” where she claims to have spent the best years of her life. After many life trials and tribulations she fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming a small business owner as a hairdresser in Friday Harbor, Washington, for 30 years. She lived there with her son Tim, and significant other Ken Nash, who preceded her in death in 2007. She was staying with her son and daughter-in-law in Bandon, Oregon, being treated for a curable cancer when she died of complications from pneumonia.
She was loved by many! She is survived by her eldest son Tim Parks of Friday Harbor, Washington; son and daughter-in-law Rusty and Diane Lluellyn of Bandon, Oregon; daughter and son-in-law Cyndi Pfeifer and John Dibble of Castle Rock, Washington; daughter Misty Rice of Friday Harbor, Washington; grandchildren Journey Jo Lee Rice, Jennifer and Jonathan Williams, Jaime Lluellyn, Alicia and Jarrod Powell and Nicholas Pfeifer; great-grandchildren Illyanna Honea, Joslyn Honea, Nicholas Pfeifer and Theodore Gribble; her sister and brother-in-law Patti and Jerry LaViolette; and her brother and sister-in-law Arnie and Marlene McDowell; numerous loving nieces and nephews and her little dog Gladys. Jeannie is also preceded in death by her mother, who died in December 2019 at the young age of 101 and her father who died in 1982.
A celebration of life will be held in Friday Harbor, Washington, and will be announced at a later date. In lieu of gifts or flowers, please consider donating in her name to The Fisher House or the Dino Doozer Foundation.
https://engage.fisherhouse.org/site/Donation2?2262.donation=form1&df_id=2262&mfc_pref=T
https://m.dinodoozerfoundation.org/
