Darlene L. Rice

Darlene L. Rice, fondly known as “Rusty”, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and friend, died Tuesday, March 25, 2025.

Darlene was born to Louis and Florence Buerth May 26, 1934 in Berthold, North Dakota. She was 1 of 6 girls and 1 brother landing in the middle of the pack. After some moving around, they ended up in Grand Forks. She attended and graduated from Central High School.

She met and married Donald Rice April 19, 1953 at the age of 19. Three days after their wedding, Donald was drafted and they moved to Washington, D.C. After his discharge from the Army, they moved back to Grand Forks to be near family.

Rusty took a job at the Grand Forks Clinic located downtown as a bookkeeper for the pharmacy and was with them as they moved out to Med Park. She “retired” in 1993.

In 1995 she joined the workforce again and took a part time job working at Widman’s as a chipper dipper and worked there until her official retirement at the age of 83.

Her favorite pastime was going to the library as she loved to read. When we were young, she would walk us to the library downtown every Saturday so she could check out more books. She also had a love for gardening and animals. She made the best Kool Aid, mixing the flavors and she always had a jar of sun tea sitting on the deck.

She moved into Tufte Manor at the end of Spring 2023. There she made many friends including her closest friends, Shirie and Elva. She loved to participate in the activities and especially loved to play Bingo and play cards with her special young friend, Lucy. She loved to order treats and then made sure to share them with the staff and residents. Her kindness and generosity did not go unnoticed, but don’t let that fool you. She was a trickster, sassy and evil card player.

Darlene is preceded in death by her husband, Donald, an infant child, a great-granddaughter Laila Enno, her parents, an infant brother Gerald, sisters Arlis Finnie, Betty Dohman and Carol Dunn, her brother-in-laws Al Finnie, Bob Dohman, Steve Dunn, Laurel Lappegaard, Russ Rice and Jim Rice, sister-in-laws Lorraine Rice and Sharon Fluer, nephews Jeff Rice and David Dohman and her many dogs that they owned and loved.

Darlene is survived by her three daughters, Debralee (Rob) Muir, DeAnn (Bob) Phelps and Dawn (Karl) Marquart. Her grandchildren Steven (Stephanie) Muir, Amber (Matt) Korkowski, Callie (Jeff) Reeves, Kevin (Brittany) Phelps, Christopher (Michelle) Rice, Breyanne (Derick) Enno, and Jake (Alexis) Lafontaine, 18 great-grandchildren, two sisters, Lavonne Lappegaard and Patricia (Joe) Gomes and many nieces and nephews. She loved her grandchildren and great grandchildren immensely. Thank you for being a blessing in our lives.

Services for Darlene will be held Friday, May 16th at 11am at University Lutheran Church, Grand Forks. Visitation will be for the hour before the service in the church.