This section is dedicated in the memory of Stan Rice, poet and painter, and husband to Anne Rice and father to Christopher Rice. Scroll to bottom of page for links to the Official Stan Rice site, and comments by Anne Rice on her husband's early death.
The following is the obituary of Stan Rice from Nola.com:
Stan RiceStan Rice, noted poet and painter, born November 7, 1942, in Dallas, Texas, died on December 9, 2002, in New Orleans, after a four month fight with brain cancer. He was the beloved husband of Anne O'Brien Rice and the father of Christopher Rice and Michele Rice (deceased). He was the son of Mr. Stanley Rice (deceased) and Mrs. Margaret Rice. Survivors include his brother, Larry Rice and two sisters, Nancy Rice Diamond and Cynthia Rice Rogers. He is lovingly mourned by other relatives. Mr. Rice graduated from Richardson High School in 1960. He attended North Texas State University before moving to California. He graduated from San Francisco State University, where he enjoyed a long teaching career and served as assistant director of the Poetry Center and later chairman of the Creative Writing department for many years. He was the recipient of the prestigious Joseph Henry Jackson Award, one of the first writing fellowships ever given by the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Edgar Allen Poe Award of the Academy of American Poets. After teaching for 22 years he retired in 1988, he moved with his family to New Orleans and devoted his life to writing poetry and painting. The Stan Rice Gallery was opened in 1999. Soon after www.stanrice.com was developed. Stan is the author of seven published books of poetry and one book of his paintings by Knopf. His book Red to the Rind was just published this Fall. False Prophet, his latest collection of poems will appear in the coming year. The list of his books are as follows: Red to the Rind (2002), Radiance of Pigs (1999), Fear Itself (1995), Singing Yet (1992), Body of Work(1983), Whiteboy (1976), Some Lamb (1975). Paintings (1997) was published by Alfred Knopf, New York. A funeral service will be held on Friday, December 13, 2002 at 3:00 p.m. at Bultman Funeral Home, 3338 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70115. Visitation for friends and family will begin at 1:00 p.m. Burial will be private. Memorials to Amnesty International, 322 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10001 are preferred. BULTMAN FUNERAL HOME in charge of arrangements. Information: (504) 895-7766. Published in The Times-Picayune from 12/10/2002 - 12/13/2002.
And this is an article also by Nola.com on Stan Rice:
12/10/02
By Susan Larson
Book editor/The Times-Picayune
"Award-winning poet and painter Stan Rice died of brain cancer early
Monday morning at Touro Infirmary. He was 60.
The author of seven poetry collections, Mr. Rice created a body of
work that was lyrical and visionary, filled with the extreme and
colorful imagery that also informed his paintings.
His work, while notably accessible, was not pitched at the mass
audiences enjoyed by his wife, best-selling novelist Anne Rice, but
their long marriage was a study in creative interdependency and
inspiration. In a 1997 collection of reproductions of his
artworks, Paintings, Mr. Rice described the origin of his
work The Flying Pig:
'Anne bought me a large, winged pig, which she hung from my studio
ceiling while I was on a trip. That was in 1995.' The metaphor
of 'the most earthy and sod-rooting of all mammals flying on wings'
had arisen in Mr. Rice's early poetry, but in its commingling of the
visionary and the ordinary he saw a concise summation of his overall
stance as a poet: 'my aesthetic writ small.'
Born in Dallas, Mr. Rice met his future wife in a high school
journalism class.
They married in 1961 and enrolled at San Francisco State University,
where Mr. Rice went on to become assistant director of the
prestigious Poetry Center and later headed the creative writing
department.
The Rices' lives changed forever when their daughter, Michele, then
6, died of leukemia in 1972, an experience at the heart of Mr.
Rice's book Some Lamb.
In 1988, the couple moved to New Orleans, where Mr. Rice eventually
opened the Stan Rice Gallery.
In Prism of the Night, a 1992 biography of Anne Rice, she said of
her husband: 'He's a model to me of a man who doesn't look to heaven
or hell to justify his feelings about life itself. His capacity for
action is admirable. Very early on he said to me, "What more could
you ask for than life itself?"'
Poet Deborah Garrison was Mr. Rice's editor at Alfred A. Knopf for
his 2002 collection, Red to the Rind, which was dedicated to the
Rices' son, Christopher, in whose success as a novelist his father
greatly rejoiced. 'Stan really attempted to kind of stare down the
world, and I admire that,' Garrison said.
Knopf's Victoria Wilson, who edits Anne Rice's novels and worked
with Mr. Rice on his 1997 book, Paintings, was particularly
impressed by his refusal to sell his artworks.
'The great thing about Stan is that he refused to play the game as a
painter, and he refused to play the game as a poet,' Wilson said.
Mr. Rice's seven poetry collections -- Some Lamb
(1975), Whiteboy (1976), Body of Work (1983), Singing Yet
(1992), Fear Itself (1995), The Radiance of Pigs (1999) and Red to the Rind--attracted numerous honors, including the Edgar Allen
Poe Award of the Academy of American Poets, the Joseph Henry Jackson
Award and a writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the
Arts.
In addition to his wife and son, survivors include his mother,
Margaret Rice; a brother, Larry Rice; and two sisters, Nancy Rice
Diamond and Cynthia Rice Rodgers.
A funeral will be held Friday at 3 p.m. at Bultman Funeral Home,
3338 St. Charles Ave. Visitation begins at 1 p.m. Burial will be
private."
Award-winning poet, painter Stan Rice, 60
Stan Rice: Paintings and Poetry
Anne's Comments to Fans on Her Husband's Unexpected death
