Elizabeth
(Minerd)
Rankin Rice
(1899-1979)
Elizabeth
Virginia (Minerd) Rankin Rice was born on July 9, 1899 in
Coolspring near Uniontown,
Fayette County, PA, the daughter of Charles B. and Ada (Tressler)
Minerd.
On March 19, 1917, Lizzie married her first husband, Charles "William" Rankin, seen here, the son of John and Mary (McLaughlin) Rankin.
In the 1920s, the Rankins lived at Hoover, Fayette County. They had two children -- James A. Rankin and Mildred Ada Nugent. .
Circa 1930, the Rankins resided on Kiner Avenue near Masontown, Fayette County, where Bill worked as a machinist in a local coal mine.
Bill
and Lizzie are seen at right with their young son James, circa 1919. The photograph
likely was taken by Lizzie's brother Frank
Minerd, who was an excellent amateur photographer and took many pictures of the
Minerd family during this era.
Lizzie and Bill's marriage lasted more than three decades. Unfortunately, however, the couple divorced in 1948.
Baby daughter
Mildred is seen at left.
Lizzie worked as a housekeeper and was a member of the Christian Temple of God Church of Uniontown.
Tragedy struck the family in July 1946, when the Rankins' son in law Robert Nugent was killed in a coal mine accident at the Robena Mine of U.S. Steel Corporation, operated by the H.C. Frick Coke Co. in Carmichaels, Greene County, PA, the largest coal mine in the world at that time. His neck was broken in a fall of slate in the mine.
Robert was buried in the Masontown Cemetery. He is one of the last known cousin to have been killed in a coal-coke-steel accident in our family, in a long, tragic string that began with one of Elizabeth's second cousins in 1884.
Lizzie also suffered the passing of her son James at some point in time. The details of his death are unknown, but will be reported here when learned.
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Coal is fed into blending bins at U.S. Steel's Robena Mine to insure chemical uniformity needed to produce metallurgical coke. |
Lizzie
is seen here, standing at far right, posing with her sisters Daisy
Hiles Predilla (left) and Gertrude
Thomas.
At age 52, Lizzie married coal miner John P. Rice, a native of Green Bay, WI, on Nov. 1, 1951. John was a longtime laborer at United States Steel in McKeesport, near Pittsburgh, PA.
The Rices lived in Masontown, Fayette County. They adopted a daughter, Edna Wilson, who resided in Racine, Racine County, Wisconsin, circa 1979.
Lizzie died on Oct. 26, 1979, at the age of 80. At the time of her passing, she had 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She is buried at the Greendale Cemetery in Masontown. Her obituary was published in the Masontown Sentinel.
Lizzie
and John are seen here in an undated photograph, which she inscribed on
the back and sent to one of her nieces. In the photo, she seems to be gesturing
with her right hand.
John later married his widowed sister in law, Ida Mae (Keefer) Minerd. Her first husband, Ross Minerd, had died in 1956. John passed away on June 25, 1992 in Uniontown. He also is buried at Greendale Cemetery.
Son James A. Rankin (1918-1975) married Bernice K. (?) (1917-2008). They had one son, Richard A. Rankin. Bernice was employed at House Glass Corporation in Point Marion, Fayette County for half of a century. James and Bernice divorced, and he later remarried. James died in Silver Spring, Montgomery County, MD in September 1975. Bernice passed away at the age of 91 on Sept. 13, 2008.
Daughter Mildred Rankin (1921-1993) and her husband Robert Nugent (1915-1946) had at least two daughters, Patricia Ann Nugent and Janet Bowman. Sadly, daughter Patricia died at the tender age of two years in 1943.
The fate of adopted daughter Edna Wilson is not known.
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Robert and Mildred (Rankin) Nugent's grave at Masontown Cemetery |
Copyright © 2000-2002, 2007-2008 Mark A. Miner