Anne Catherine Rice

Anne Catherine Rice (née Tusch) passed away late last week at the age of 90 at Revera Leaside Retirement Home in Toronto. Beloved wife of Bob Rice for more than 64 years, and extraordinary and loving mother to daughters Kathy (Steve), Jenny, Julie, and Mary. Adored grandmother to Jennifer, Sarah, Alex, Kian, and Raymond (Joy, deceased). Anne is also survived by Mary’s granddaughters Brooke, Jansyn and Hollyn and great granddaughters Raelyn and Bayla. Anne is predeceased by her brother Joe, sisters Julie and Mary, and parents Jacob and Marie.

Anne graduated from McMaster University with an honour’s degree in history. In high school, she worked during the summers at a local Cambridge factory and the business owner and his wife were so impressed with Anne’s intelligence and warm personality that they gave her a full scholarship to attend university. Anne sailed through university playing bridge and having fun with friends, and surprised her fellow students when she made the honour roll after they rarely saw her studying. After university, she moved to Montreal and worked as an efficiency expert for a company, which set the stage for her daughters’ careers in business. She met Bob in Montreal, and they married in Cambridge in 1959 and quickly started their family. While Anne was as close to a perfect mom as anyone could be, she was also an incredible volunteer and beloved friend who was well known for her sense of humour, generous spirit, loving personality, and appetite for fun. Anne and Bob volunteered for many different charities and organizations. They had an incredible community with their friends from CCC and CFM as well as Camp Kinkora.

In retirement, they moved to Kingston, halfway between their Montreal friends and their kids in Ontario. Bob and Anne had a dream retirement, renovating Lilac Cottage on Cartwright Point into a magical place where her kids, grandkids, family, and friends loved to visit and stay, and enjoy Anne and Bob’s never-ending hospitality. Lilac Cottage was even featured on a number of different garden and house tours. The couple quickly made incredible friends in Kingston, and Anne again gave her time to volunteering with the Kingston General Hospital Auxiliary and other organizations. Their social life was the envy of their kids with many social events, trips to exciting places and fun dinner parties over the years.

Anne’s last few years were a heartbreaking struggle as she was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, and she broke her hip in the first few months of the COVID pandemic. Bob, her kids and grandkids will miss Anne every day but take solace in knowing that she is now at rest.

We will be holding a celebration of Anne’s life at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory to The Alzheimer Society of Canada (https://alzheimer.ca/en) or the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care (https://tlcpc.org/temmy-latner/donors).

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/toronto-on/robert-rice-11426130