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In memory of

Maryellen Rice

Whitestone, NY

May 16, 1963 - June 2, 2020

May 16, 1963 - Jun 2, 2020

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In Memory of Maryellen Rice (1963 - 2020)

Maryellen Rice, age 57, passed away in the early hours of the morning on June 2nd, after battling colon cancer for over three years. She went as peacefully as possible, in her own bed, resting comfortably, in her own home, filled with the family she raised and two beloved cats.

Maryellen was born on May 16th, 1963, in Jamaica, NY, where she lived next to her grandparents, Miguel and Amelia “The Ace” Murillo, and attended the Mary Louis Academy. She married William Rice on June 3rd, 1983, leaving St. John’s University to start a family.

After a childhood full of service accompanying her parents, Deacon Ed and Mary Joesten, on numerous missions of Catholic charity, she eventually became a teacher, serving over ten years in the New York City Department of Education. Maryellen raised three children before going back to school, graduating Queens College twice over, with a BA and an MSed, with a focus on special needs students, proving that it is never too late to follow your dreams.

Her greatest attribute: she was kind. It informed her both her parenting and her work; she was much beloved, not just by her family but by her students and coworkers alike. Maryellen enriched the curriculum for her special education students by establishing hands-on projects with vocational ambitions, such as papermaking, millinery, and a community garden. Betty Lee Golpe, a fellow teacher and longtime coworker, who recently nominated Maryellen for a Big Apple Teaching Award, called her “the bravest, the strongest, the most positive person I have ever known. We loved her.”

Maryellen loved so many things. Her own bountiful home garden, “collecting” soup spoons from various restaurants, and time spent with family and friends. She loved the music of the 1960s and ’70s counterculture of her youth, going so far as to cofound an Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement Club in high school (based on the philosophy espoused in Arlo Guthrie’s folk song of the same name) along with her classmate and best friend, Joyce Capone-Dunn. She was always smiling and easy-going, taking all of life’s obstacles in stride; her most favorite saying after her diagnosis was “life goes on, we keep moving.”

She is survived by her husband, William Rice, her three children, Alanna Rice-Wilson (spouse Richard Wilson), John Rice, and William Rice (spouse Marianne Rice), as well as her mother, Mary Joesten, and her four brothers, Michael, Edward, Brian, and David. We all mourn the fact that she left us so soon.

After a wake at Martin A. Gleason Funeral Home in Whitestone, on Friday, June 4th, she will be cremated and interred in a niche at Mount Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Flushing. In lieu of flowers, please donate to colon cancer research, or just spend some time outside in nature.

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