Oral history interview with Clyde Rice

Collection

Identifier: SR1054

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Clyde Rice was conducted by Rick Harmon at Rice’s home in Clackamas, Oregon, from January 22 to March 13, 1985. The interview was conducted in seven sessions. The audio on tapes 3, 4, 6, and 13 is affected by speed issues. In the interview, Rice discusses his family background and early life in Portland and Salem. He talks about his marriage to Marguerite Evelyn “Nordi” Nordstrom, and speaks at length about his affair and subsequent marriage with Virginia Lee Broms. He discusses his career as an author, particularly the process of writing and publishing his first novel, “A Heaven in the Eye.”

Dates

1985 January 22-March 13

Creator

Rice, Clyde, 1903-1998 (Interviewee, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Copyright to photographs has not been determined and use may require authorization from copyright holders.

Biographical note

Clyde Harvey Rice was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1903. He attended the Portland Art Museum School, now the Pacific Northwest College of Art. In 1921, he moved to San Francisco, California. In 1922, he and Marguerite Evelyn “Nordi” Nordstrom were married; they later had one child. In 1934, the couple returned to Oregon and homesteaded in Clackamas County. In 1937, the couple returned to Portland, where Rice helped his father run a flavor extract business until 1958. Clyde Rice and Nordi Rice were divorced in 1945, and the same year, Clyde Rice married Nordi’s niece, Virginia Lee “Ginny” Broms. Later in his life, Rice became a writer. He published his first book, "A Heaven in the Eye," when he was 81 years old. He died in 1998.

Extent

.1 Cubic Feet (13 audiocassettes (11 hr., 15 min., 46 sec.) + 5 photographs (color))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Clyde Rice conducted by Rick Harmon from January 22 to March 13, 1985. Rice was an author from Portland, Oregon, and he discusses his novel "A Heaven in the Eye," as well as his family background and early life, his marriages, and his father's flavor extract business.

Existence and Location of Copies

Audio available online in OHS Digital Collections.

Related Materials

An additional interview with Clyde Rice, SR 67, and a collection of Rice's stories and poetry, Lib. Acc. 24926, are also held by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.