Enjoying life together for 60 years

SEELEY LAKE – When she was a junior in high school, Carole Egness asked Garry Rice to go to the Tolo Dance with her. While it was a school dance where the girls ask boys, this was their first date and Garry was four years older.

"I don't think that was done much in those days," Carole said and smiled.

After dating for three years, the Rices married April 28, 1962. Last week they celebrated 60 years of marriage.

"We had a commitment to each other and our God. We got married before God and nothing was going to part us. If we hadn't had Him there, I don't know if we would have lasted," Carole said. "That is why I have really tried to keep this commitment. It was for better or for worse."

* * * * *

Garry headed home to Vashon Island, Washington after he finished his first year of training with the US Coast Guard Academy.

"His dad said, 'You have to do something so I'm enrolling you in Seattle U and you are going to be a civil engineer,'" Carole said adding he graduated in civil engineering. "How often do you get kids listening to their dads?"

In 1959, Garry was in his first year at Seattle University when Carole met him through his younger sister. The girls both attended Vashon High School. When he accepted her invitation to attend the school dance with her, Carole said her mother helped make a corsage for him.

"She said right away, anybody that is going to wear this silly corsage, you better stick with him," Carole said and smiled.

After the dance, they went their separate ways for a year before reconnecting prior to Carole's graduation.

"From then on, it was just getting him through college," Carole said. "He couldn't afford much in the way of dates at the time."

After high school graduation, Carole started at Seattle University and majored in biology.

Garry commuted from Vashon Island to Montana for about six months while working for the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps had just started the planning for the Libby dam, the main focus for the rest of his career.

Even though she wanted to finish school, in November 1961 she finally said yes to one of Garry's multiple proposals.

"With anyone that goes together for that long, you either get married, you break up or you live together. We weren't about to live together. So I finally said yes," Carole said. "I'm not sorry. I went two years and that was good."

When they told their parents that same night, Garry's mother said, "It's about time." Carole's mother, on the other hand, did not take it well.

"She was still expecting me to stay home and finish school," Carole said. "They came around and loved Garry."

Carole used her next semester tuition for the wedding. They had a big wedding April 28, 1962 with around 200 guests at the Presbyterian Church on Vashon Island followed by a big reception. Carole was 19 and Garry was 23.

For their honeymoon, the Rices traveled down the coast to Carmel and Monterey California. That was the first time Carole was introduced to camping.

"I had never camped growing up but Garry had camped a lot with his family," Carole said. "I kinda liked it. Those were the days that you could just pull off in a cornfield and camp. I was a little bit nervous about that but we never got stopped."

Garry moved his new bride to Glasgow, Montana where he worked out of an office at an Air Force base.

"I didn't know anybody, first time away from home and I was pretty sad," Carole said. "He was gone all day long. Luckily there was a library and a good librarian in the town and a swimming pool so I took advantage of that."

When he got home, they enjoyed going for drives around Montana. Carole said they would drive an hour and a half to an outdoor movie or to a hot springs on the weekend.

"Montana was fun for three months but then we got to go back home to Vashon," Carole said.

Within 15 months they had their first child. Robin was born in 1963 followed by their second daughter Rhonda 15 months later.

Carole decided she wanted to go back to school and was accepted into the University of Washington Nursing School. When she found out she was pregnant with their third, she never went back.

"I'm good at educating myself," Carole said. "I love to read."

The Rices welcomed their third daughter Kari in 1967 and their only son Garry in 1969. They raised their children on Vashon Island. Garry continued to work for the Corps and served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves for 10 years. He went to meetings once a month and then did two weeks annually.

"His service was lighthouses and saving people who got into deep trouble out in the ocean and monitoring the big races around Lake Washington in the summertime," Carole said.

Carole raised the children. Having a love for tennis, Carole started her children playing tennis when they were very young. She also started volunteering with the high school tennis coach. Soon she was promoted to the head tennis coach at Vashon High School for 20 years.

Garry played as well and they found a few other families that also loved the sport.

"Tennis was big in our family," Carole said. "The kids all grew up and they were all on the tennis team."

After their son Garry started school, Carole started baking for the Vashon School District which included two elementary schools, a junior high and the high school. She baked 600 cookies a day, made cinnamon rolls and all fresh bread. She was a baker for almost 20 years.

"I pretty much did it all myself in four or five hours," Carole said. "It was the same time the kids were at school so when they had days off, I had days off."

On their vacations, the Rices enjoyed hiking, camping and visiting family. The children loved to camp and they traveled all over the country.

"Our kids became experts at knowing all about dams because Garry was a dam builder," Carole said. "He would introduce us to all the different dams in the area."

When Carole was 40, she and Kari, who was a junior in high school, took their first trip outside of the United States. They visited Scandinavia.

"I've been loving it ever since," Carole said. "I just love seeing the different cultures."

All of their children graduated from Vashon High School and Garry retired from the Corps at age 55.

The Rices made the most of Garry's retirement finally getting to visit all 50 states and they traveled overseas together. They visited countries including Finland, Israel, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Norway to visit Carole's distant relatives.

"At first he was very reluctant but he really got into it," Carole said. "I was always more wide-eyed than Garry was. He was always afraid we were going to get lost. He would have a map in his hands and I had to keep prodding him to look around."

Carole continued, "It was just fun spending all this time together in these foreign countries. We each had different views of it and have so many wonderful pictures and memories of all those places. I hope everybody can at least explore our own country because America is beautiful. There is so much to see here."

Kari and her family moved to Seeley Lake 26 years ago. Garry helped them build their house alongside Wayne Cahoon and Shane Kesterke.

The Rices were getting tired of the traffic and how busy Vashon Island was getting and many of their friends had moved away. When Garry suggested moving to Seeley Lake, Carole was not that excited because she had heard stories about the mosquitoes. However, after Cahoon helped them find 20 acres off Boy Scout Road, the Rices built a log home and moved to Seeley Lake in 2001.

"Garry and I determined that we weren't moving here to follow [Kari and Dave], we were moving here for ourselves to get off Vashon," Carole said. "They were the ones who got us here and we are so thankful."

The Rices now have 16 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. The rest of their children still live in Washington. Due to Garry's health conditions they are no longer able to travel.

In addition to God as the focus of their marriage, Carole said their marriage was healthier because they each took an interest in each other's passions and found things they loved to do together. Garry supporting Carole coaching tennis and she supported his "hunting habit" and fishing.

"I think each one in a couple needs to have their own time to do the things that they like to do too as well as doing things together," Carole said. "I think that is very important. You have just got to do things together or when the kids are gone, what do you have?"

Carole continued, "Like other couples we have had our ups and downs. But you just go through one day at a time and God has been leading us through this whole marriage. I've been thankful for that."