Born: 1897 - Paris, France
Died: 1990 - Nampa, Idaho
Born May 19, 1897, in Paris, France, the daughter of Alfred and Martha Mestraud, she was raised and educated in France and England and came to the United States in 1914, settling near Chicago. Working as a milliner at first, she married Alexander C. Rice in May of 1920, and the couple made their home in Chicago, where she opened an art studio. Painting in oils and pastels, she did portraits and still lives.
Rice studied with Wellington C. Reynolds and at the Palette and Chisel Club. She later became president of the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists, the most significant art society in Chicago. She remained president of the No-Jury Society for several years before moving to Highland Park, Illinois. They then moved to California, where Mr. Rice died in 1959.
Violette Rice moved to Nampa, Idaho, in 1981, where she died Thursday, Oct.18, 1990.