Kate Rice

Kate Rice was born September 10, 1954, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Sparta, Wisconsin, the first of Jim and Barbara Rice’s five children.

Part bookworm, part tomboy, and always a party girl, Kate graduated 19th in a class of 215 students, despite two Ds in geometry—she paid more attention to the cute guy in front of her than the teacher. (She was also named “Class Angel” of the Class of ’72.)

Kate was always either swimming or hiding under a bed reading a book while dodging her chores. Her heart was forever at Spring Bank, the cottage just outside Sparta that her father, Judge James W. Rice, bought after realizing all of his kids got carsick on any trip of over ten miles.

Inspired by her father’s ski jumping career, Kate joined the Sparta Ski Club, selling burgers at high school football games to fund ski trips to the UP. Once in college, she spent every vacation skiing out west and reveling in the freedom it brought her.

After high school, Kate majored in parties and journalism at UW-Madison, ultimately working for the Tomah Journal and freelancing for newspapers across the state. She covered everything from the dairy industry to the Cuban refugee resettlement at Fort McCoy during the Mariel boatlift.

But the mountains kept calling, and Kate and a college friend quit their jobs and headed to Aspen to be ski bums for a season. In that all-cash economy, she paid her car off early and returned to Wisconsin. There she found that all potential jobs paid less than the one she already had, so she bit the bullet and, to her astonishment, got into grad school at Columbia University.

Kate meant to go to grad school and work for just a few years before heading back out west, but she fell into a job at a travel magazine and discovered that New York City was pretty damn fun! She loved Monroe County but always felt as though somewhere else, there was a party going on all the time, and once she got to New York, she realized she’d found it. New York gave her friends, parties, and the most important thing in her life, her two daughters, Eliana and Gavriela. She hauled them home to Wisconsin and out west often, sharing her favorite places and activities with them. She once roped them and a rich mix of people in Greenfield, Wisconsin, into a standoff with a multinational mining company that threatened the pristine lands of West Central Wisconsin. Back in New York, Kate helped found a refugee resettlement group that has helped hundreds find homes.

Kate’s daughters grew. Her marriage collapsed. She started singing rock ’n’ roll, doing stand-up comedy in dive bars on the Lower East Side, and started looking west again. After a stage four cancer diagnosis and six weeks of treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Kate headed to Park City, Utah. She started DJing for the local radio station and working as a ski instructor, thriving in the mountains that she loved so much. All the while, Kate fought the cancer fiercely, armed with an indomitable spirit, an unfailing sense of humor, and half-and-half in her coffee. (She was also all of her doctors’ favorite patient.)

Kate’s physical life ended at home on December 26, 2024, a day improbably both sunny and snowy. Her daughters were at her side, and she was surrounded by the love of family and friends near and far. She will be deeply missed by all who were given the gift of knowing her.

Kate’s funeral mass will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 11, 2025, at St. Patrick’s Church in Sparta, Wisconsin. A luncheon, or, as she’d call it, “Kate’s Going Away Party,” will follow at the Club Oasis.

A private burial will be in Woodlawn Cemetery at a later time.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be directed to International Rescue Committee at https://help.rescue.org/donate/make-tribute-donation or Natural Resources Defense Council at https://www.nrdc.org/ways-give.

Online condolences may be offered at www.schanhoferfh.com.

Lanham-Schanhofer Funeral Home and Cremation, Sparta, is assisting the family with arrangements.

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