Annie Russell (Nicolson) Rice, of Washington, DC and South Bristol, died on May 25. She was born on Dec. 24, 1931 in Brooklyn, N.Y. to Rosina Agnes (King) and James Nicolson and was the devoted stepdaughter of William Erxleben.
After graduating from high school in New York City, Annie traveled to Panama to live with an aunt and uncle in the Canal Zone; thus, she commenced a lifetime of travel and adventure that took her around the world more times than anyone can recall. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she taught elementary school in Indonesia for Standard-Vacuum Oil Company and traveled extensively throughout Asia. She exchanged her first-class return ticket from Indonesia for 27 one-way tickets and skipped her way back home staying at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and on a houseboat in Kashmir. At the wedding of two of her friends from Indonesia, she was introduced to the bride’s brother, David, whom she later married.
With her husband, Annie spent many happy years raising her family and participating in the school and village life of The New Hampton School and New Hampton, N.H. After one too many wet camping trips, they built a summer cottage on The Gut in South Bristol.
Following her retirement in 1995, Annie moved to Washington, DC and returned to traveling. For several months each year, she would set off to ride local buses from one end of South America to the other or explore remote areas of Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. She returned with stories that reflected her deep appreciation of both people and culture. These individual trips were balanced with long visits and shorter adventures with each of her children and their families.
Annie earned undergraduate degrees from Canal Zone Junior College and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. She was a teacher in Baltimore, Long Island, Indonesia, and New Hampshire schools.
She was predeceased by her husband, David E. Rice, in 1993 and by her brother, James T. Nicolson.
She is survived by her children, William E. Rice, Charlotte A. Rice and husband Ezra Shales and Sarah R. Cutler and husband David; grandchildren, Ian, Abram and Evelyn Cutler and Agnes and Henry Shales; as well as four nieces and four nephews.
Condolences may be mailed to the family at P.O. Box 77, South Bristol, ME 04568.
Burial will be at a later date in New Hampton, N.H.
