Elsie M. Fielder Rice

Dade City, FL - Elsie M. Fielder Rice, 103, formerly of Hartford, VT and Lebanon, NH, died Tuesday March 8th at Gulfside Hospice in Zephyrhills, FL.

She was born June 23, 1912 in Ferrisburg, VT, one of sixteen children of Francis and Elizabeth (Stebbins) LaForce. She grew up in Ferrisburg and Huntington, VT and was later married to Levi Swain Fielder. They moved to Pittsburgh, PA and Caldwell, NJ while Mr. Fielder worked to serve the war effort during World War II. Elsie was proud to help out with war effort by volunteering with the Red Cross and serving as an Air Raid Warden. After the war the family moved back to Vermont where they purchased the Maple Leaf Farm in Hartford and later the Three Pines Farm on the Quechee-Hartland Rd. Elsie helped Levi on the farm and also worked as a bookkeeper for Williams Laundry and then at Blaktop, both in West Lebanon. After selling the farm due to Mr. Fielder's health, they moved to Burlington for a time before returning to the Upper Valley. Shortly after Mr. Fielder's death in 1973, Elsie began spending winters in Dade City and has wintered there every year since 1975. She was married to Clayton Rice Sr. in 1991 and they spent their summers in Lebanon, NH. Mr. Rice died in 2003.

Elsie was predeceased by her husbands, a son Frederick Wayne Fielder and her fifteen brothers and sisters.

She is survived by a son James Fielder and his wife Kay of Dade City, FL; a daughter Joan Green also of Dade City, FL; seventeen grandchildren and many great grandchildren.

A graveside service will be held in the Hartford Cemetery in White River Jct., VT at a later date.