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Dorothy Mae Griffin Rice Collection

 Collection
Identifier: WV 0112

Content Description

The collection includes 1999 October 31 oral history transcript; photograph of Dorothy with Marine Recruiting Office staff in Denver, Colorado,1944; photograph of Dorothy flight clearance staff at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, California,1945 and a Marine Corps Shoulder Bag.

Dates

  • circa 1944-1999

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information. Please see our Sensitive Materials Statement.

Biographical / Historical

Dorothy Mae Griffin Rice (1923-2010) of New London, Ohio, served primarily as a recruiter in the Marine Corps Women's Reserve from June 1943 to 1945 and from 1950 to 1952. After her military service, Rice worked as a receptionist, transcriber, and for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Dorothy Mae Griffin Rice (1923-2010) grew up in New London, Ohio. She spent two years in the secretarial program at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, before joining her sister in the Marine Corps Women's Reserve in June 1943. In August, Rice went to boot camp at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. After boot camp and two weeks of mess duty at Camp Lejeune, she was sent to Denver, Colorado, to work in recruiting. Rice remained there until June 1945, when she was transferred to the flight clearance office at the Marine Air Corps Station in El Toro, California.

She was discharged as a corporal in November 1945. Rice worked briefly for the Mansfield, Ohio, airport before working as an airline hostess for Continental Airlines. When the Korean War started in 1950, she was working for Union Pacific Railroad and decided to rejoin the Marines Corps Reserves. She was stationed at the Denver recruiting office and then was transferred to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina. In late 1951, she was sent to the recruiting office in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

She went on inactive duty and was discharged following her marriage in 1952. Dorothy Rice met Don Rice at Cherry Point and they were married in February 1952. Don Rice remained in the Marines for thirty years, and was stationed in California, North Carolina, Florida, Hawaii, and Japan. Dorothy Rice worked as a receptionist and secretary until her children were born. While they were in school, she sold Avon products and later was a transcriber for Aetna Life and Casualty.

When her husband retired in September 1974, they moved to a small farm in Raleigh, North Carolina. In Raleigh, Rice worked for the Office of Personnel Management and then spent ten years at the Environmental Protection Agency in Durham. She retired at the age of sixty-two and started growing and selling orchids. Rice died on 23 May 2010 in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Extent

3.21 Linear Feet (2 folders, textile box )

Language of Materials

English

Metadata Rights Declarations

  • License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Condition Description

The condition is good.

Offensive Language Statement

The UNC Greensboro University Libraries collects, preserves, and makes accessible unique and historical materials for learning and research. The nature of historical materials is such that some material may represent positions, norms, and values that are offensive and objectionable. These materials represent the opinions and actions of their creators. By providing access to these records in our reading room and through our digital collections, we recognize that archives and rare books can play a vital role in holding those creators accountable and in helping us learn from the past.

Our finding aids and other collection descriptions may occasionally re-use language provided by creators or former holders of the materials, but we strive to place outdated or offensive terminology in context. That said, we recognize that we may not always make the right decision and welcome feedback from all sources so we can learn and adjust our practices. Please contact us at scua@uncg.edu if you encounter problematic language in our finding aids or other collection description. We will review the language and, as appropriate, update it in a way that balances preservation of the original context with our ongoing commitment to describing materials with respectful and inclusive language.

Processing Information

Processed by Matthew McCarthy.

Title
Dorothy Mae Griffin Rice Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Matthew McCarthy
Date
2022 May
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
eng

Repository Details

Part of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives Repository

Contact:
P.O. Box 26170
320 College Ave.
Greensboro NC 27402-6170 US
336-334-5246