Extracted from The Centreville Press (Centreville, AL)
Thursday, May 30, 1963

Mrs. Rice Retiring This Year After Teaching 46 Years In Bibb County

By Ed Watkins, Tuscaloosa News West Alabama Editor

WEST BLOCTON -- Mrs. Kate Rice of West Blocton is retiring this week after teaching 46 years in elementary schools in Bibb County.

Mrs. Rice has been teaching at the West Blocton Elementary School for the last 20 years.

``I've been teaching 47 years but my first year was in St. Clair County,'' the genial teacher said.

In Bibb County Mrs. Rice has taught at McCulley Hill, Masena, Primitive Ridge, Lucile, Statesville, Evergreen, Antioch and Johntown. Mrs. Rice has a pleasing smile, and a certain quality that makes students feel at ease in her classroom.

``Oh yes, I can remember the horse and buggy days,'' she said. ``I was teaching at Primitive Ridge and I had to travel about four or five miles by horse and buggy,'' she said. ``I was living with my parents at the time and dad would hitch up the horse for me every morning,'' she said.

``When I was teaching at Evergreen in about 1928 the school burned while classes were being held,'' she continued. ``However, we were lucky that no students were injured and we saved all the books in the little library,'' she said. ``Those were the days when the small schools were heated by a wood stove. It was during the winter time and a spark from the stove caught the roof on fire. A student who had gone outside noticed the blaze and came running back into the building,'' Mrs. Rice said. ``We sounded the big bell and had all of the children out of the building in just a couple of minutes,'' she said.

``I sure did hate to see the small schools consolidated,'' she said. ``You had more of a personal touch with the students in the two and three teacher schools than you do in the larger schools,'' she added.

Mrs. Rice once taught a double shift. ``I was teaching at Lucile at the time,'' she said. ``From 8 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. I taught the fourth through the seventh grades and in the afternoon from 1 o'clock until 3 o'clock I taught the first through third grades,'' she said.

About two years ago Mrs. Rice had a reunion at the West Blocton School for three generations she had taught in one family. ``I had taught the grandmother and mother and was teaching the child in the first grade.''

Although Mrs. Rice took a test to start teaching, she later received her bachelor's degree from Livingston State College and the University of Alabama. Mrs. Rice does not have any children of her own. Her husband, a West Blocton business man, died about 10 years ago.

When asked what she planned to do in her retirement, Mrs. Rice said she hopes to do some church work. ``I've never had the time I would like to devote to the church and I plan to do much church work,'' she said. Mrs. Rice is a member of the Lowery town Baptist Church.