Rice, Jeffrey L.

Jeffrey L. Rice

Troy, Ohio

Feather Location: Row N, #20

By DAVID FONG, Troy Daily News via The Associated Press

…From behind the black ninja mask, with eyes beaming, came a muffled voice: "I checked everything out, Mom. Everything is OK." "He would always wear that little ninja costume with a wooden spoon tucked in his belt because I didn't like guns," Wheelock said. "He would play outside and when he would come in, he would tell me, 'I checked everything out, Mom. Everything is OK.' He was always worried about protecting me. His whole life, that's how he was — he was always worried about protecting his mom and his sisters." That was more than 15 years ago, when Jeffrey Rice was a young man growing up in Troy…

Those who knew Rice best are willing to offer plenty of details about his life. His mother remembers him as a voracious eater who would devour her homemade Rice Krispie treats by the pan and consume packages of Ramen noodles by the half-dozen. She said he "loved fishing, looking at the stars through this big telescope he had and drinking beer." Much more than any of that, however, the people in his life — particularly the women in his life, his mother, aunt, sisters and nieces — remember him as someone who always put family first and looked to protect his loved ones.

…Rice also grew up loving football. He played his first two years in high school and, entering his junior season in the fall of 2005, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Rice appeared ready to assume a starting role along the offensive line for a powerhouse Troy team that had just been to the playoffs the year before. Just before the season started, however, Rice gave it all up to help take care of his family. Rice's father, Bruce, had suffered a stroke in 2003…

His junior year, Rice, a Troy High School student, began taking classes in Piqua at… Upper Valley Career Center. He studied welding, which his mother said seemed a natural fit. "He was always taking things apart," Wheelock said. "I would come home and there would be parts left over from what he had taken apart. I'd find pieces and parts that didn't go with anything." …

Carver:  Cindy Farr carves with the Loraine County Wood Carvers

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