Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Lynn and Genevieve Rice have been in love for three-quarters of a century, but the fact that they’ve stayed married that long required more — a commitment to stay together no matter what.
“We got along,” Genevieve said. “We didn’t always agree, but we never had any fights. We were never going to get divorced.”
Both grew up in Sweet Home, Genevieve Daughterty on a 62-acre family farm on Oak Terrace and James “Lynn” Rice on the Calapooia River.
They were both in the same grade and graduated from Sweet Home Union High School Class of 1929, when the school was smaller and had two stories. There were a total of 12 in their graduating class.
“We never knew one another until we were in high school,” Genevieve said, and they never went together before their senior year.
Genevieve attended grade school at Long Street Elementary and a school on Mountain View. Lynn attended Holley Elementary.
“We were in a play in school when we were seniors,” Lynn said. “We were in the gymnasium. After we had a program of any kind, it had to be cleaned up.”
That meant he and other students had to put away the folding chairs and sweep the gym.
“All of the sudden, only she and I were left,” Lynn said. The guy she had come to the play with got mad at her and left without her, and the girl that Lynn was going with had started attending school in Eugene and gone her separate way.
“I made the guy that I went with mad,” Genevieve said. “I talked to Lynn, and it was nothing.”
Lynn said he asked Genevieve how she was going to get home, and she told him she guessed she would walk.
Lynn offered to take her home, and she accepted. He took her home, walked her to the door and said good night. That was the beginning.
“She was a very nice young lady,” said Lynn, who is blind and partially deaf but still sharp. “We seemed to get along real well, and we started going places together. It was just general attraction.”They were married on Nov. 27, 1930 in Genevieve’s mother’s home on Oak Terrace, the second house west of Sixth Avenue. A reception followed at the same house with a honeymoon to Portland.
After getting married, the couple lived in Sweet Home before moving briefly to Jordan Valley and then Alsea to work. The Rices returned to Sweet Home in 1932 when Lynn’s cousin offered him a job at a sawmill. They built their home at 451 Oak Terrace and have lived there ever since. They ran a dairy from 1933 to 1939.
“We’ve managed very well, I guess, if we stayed together 75 years,” Lynn said. “We had a pretty fair theory right from the start: We’d never go into debt. If we didn’t have the money for it, we didn’t buy it.
“We’ve had a very, very good life.”
The two have traveled often, including trips to Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, Yellowstone and more.
“I was the sole breadwinner,” Lynn said. “She never did work out. She had plenty to do raising three kids.”
Genevieve said marriages today often end in divorce because “you don’t try to work things out together, or you get mad and file for divorce.”
“You need to talk things out, have a meeting and decide the way things should be and go that way,” she advised.
Lynn worked in many area mills in numerous jobs. He retired from Clear Lumber in 1975 as a sawyer.
He enjoys woodworking and gardening.
He has served on the School Board, the city of Sweet Home Budget Committee and 12 years on the fire department as an original member. He has been head of the financial commission and treasurer for his church, the United Methodist Church.
Genevieve graduated from Pacific Cosmetic College in Portland and worked in a beauty shop in Lebanon and then Sweet Home. She enjoys calligraphy, sewing, card making and gardening.
She has been a volunteer at schools, Girl Scout leader, trainer for the Santiam Girl Scout Council, secretary of the church board, women’s society member and a member of the memorial committee.
Their children include Lila Stepanek, Kathleen Jones and Jim Rice. They have six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
An open house will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 27, at the United Methodist Church, 845 Sixth Ave., to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary.
They request no gifts.
After graduating from high school, Genevieve went to school