Children of the late Alma Tice’s remember her giving spirit

      COLEMAN –  Alma Tice was known for being caring and adventurous.
      Two of her four children,  Reanna Kelley and David Tice both said that she did all she could to help others.
     “She was always giving and positive,” David Tice said. “She was always very considerate of other people.”
      David Tice also said that she was not only caring, but also valued ethics.
      “Her ethics were real strong,” he said. “And if it was a choice of making money or being ethical, she would always take ethics.”
      Reanna Kelley recalled those same principals in her last business venture when her mother began working in real estate.      “She tried honestly to help other people,” she said. “It didn’t matter how much money. She did her very best to help anyone in the community. She went that extra mile.”
      Prior to working in real estate, Alma Tice and her husband, Jack Tice, had worked in many other facets.
      “My father tried to farm but couldn’t make enough money,” Reanna said. “He went to work for Dow Chemical. In the ’50s they traveled to Mexico and he took a liking to the Mexican markets where people would bring their produce and sell it.”
      Reanna said that around 1960 her father started the Clare Party Store.
      “It started out as milk, bread and cheese,” she said. “My mother was pretty busy with us kids at that point. My mother and father decided they wanted us brought up to be able to survive anything that came our way, so we were expected to work.”
      Whatever family business they were in, mother, father and all four children would work. Soon, the Tices went from the party store to the farm market.
      “My dad wanted as much freedom in his life as possible and my mother always supported him,” Reanna said. “So in the sixties, my dad got into real estate and he encouraged her to get her license.”
      Alma Tice got her license and stopped working in the fruit market, Reanna said.
      “She hung onto her license even after my father passed away,” she said. “She worked until she was in her 70s.”
      The reason she worked so long was for her love of people.
      “She loved people all her life,” Reanna said. “She was dedicated to honesty and integrity and helping people any chance she got.”
      Even after she stopped “working” in terms of a job, Alma Tice continued working to help others at the Community of Christ Church in Farwell, Reanna said.
      “She would be at bake sales and help cook for various meals that the church women put on,” she said. “My mother came from a large family, a country farmer, so she canned, sewed and cooked. She was a very resourceful person.”
      David Tice said that he couldn’t remember his favorite dish because everything she cooked was good.
      “Pretty much everything was excellent,” he said. “That was one of the things, both my parents were like. As far as when it comes to food, we learned to like everything and everything was good.”
Reanna said her favorite was rhubarb pie.
      “As she got older she would cook us whatever we wanted for our birthday,” she said. “She would always show up with a cake or pie.”
      Reanna said that her mother was one of eight children.
      “And her father was one of 18,” she said. “They were from the Coleman area and my mother went to Anderson Ville School in Wise Township and when she was a little girl along with her brothers and sisters worked the family farm together and walked to school when they went.”
      Her mother’s resourcefulness, Reanna attributes to growing up in a small community.
      “To grow up in an area like Clare or Coleman you have to be resourceful,” she said. “If you don’t have a college education and you’re not a doctor or a nurse you have to be resourceful and find a way to make money and that’s what she did. She was very good at that.”
      Reanna also said her mother-enjoyed oil painting, but didn’t always have the time to pursue it.
      David remembers that his mother was nice and generous, but could also hold her ground.
      “She was a very kind person,” he said. “She could get stubborn too. For example she would defy medicine and could be noncompliant with doctors. If the wanted her to take medicine, she wanted to know why.”
      Reanna remembers most about her mother was her kind heart and generosity.
      “She loved a lot of people and a lot of people loved her back,” she said.