The Rice Family: the Early Years

As with most of my “historical” posts, I realize that every detail might not be just right, but someone recently pointed out to me that that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that I’m sharing my memory of things with the world, so please excuse any blaring factual errors!

My grandparents, Kitty and Newcomb Rice started Brush Ranch in 1956, but their history before Brush Ranch is really quite a fascinating love story, almost a classic war love story, one you might see in the movies.

Newcomb was quite an accomplished ballet dancer, somehow, after having grown up in Oklahoma. He danced in New York, and my memory has decided that he actually danced on Broadway (I have no idea if that’s true, but that’s my recollection of history). He was tall and handsome with deep dimples on each cheek and had a smile you couldn’t ignore.

Kitty was petite and cute and so the story goes, she was just a young Scottish girl working as a cartographer during WWII in the British army and Newcomb was a photographer in the United States Army. They met when Newcomb would deliver photos to Kitty to create the maps. The two fell in love and when Kitty was discharged from the army, she made the trek to Oklahoma where Newcomb’s family was all by herself. Newcomb was discharged a short time later. Her family sent her with financial help and a dowry to help them get set up in America. According to family lore, Kitty’s mother was more upset than anyone about her parting, thinking she might never see Kitty again.

Kitty and Newcomb set up a ballet studio in Borger, Texas, where they taught the young girls and boys of the panhandle of Texas to point their toes and pirouette with the best of them. They taught with the likes of Rue McClanahan (and must have been quite proud of it because, to this day, I can’t watch an episode of the Golden Girls without thinking of my grandparents).

In 1956 Kitty and Newcomb purchased the Brush Ranch property from the Old family. It was previously owned by Lyle Brush, hence the name, Brush Ranch. Before Lyle owned the property it was called Irvin’s on the Pecos and Ed Irvin, a good friend of my parents, was actually born on the property and still lives in the canyon today. But I digress, Kitty and Newcomb developed Brush Ranch Camps for Girls as an arts focused residential camp. They focused on dance, drama, and music (and there was horseback riding too…see the photo below).

The original front gate at Brush Ranch

For several years, Kitty and Newcomb would spend summers in the mountains of New Mexico and winters in Borger, but eventually, I believe in about 1964, they moved full time to the Pecos Canyon. They would then spend the winters traveling around the country trying to recruit campers. They would literally go door to door selling camp! They would also host parties at the homes of campers and have everyone invite their friends and give out information and do a short presentation.

They were quite successful at running summer camp (more history of the camp here) and it amazes me to this day that the love between two people could help bring such joy and happiness to so many others throughout the years. Of course, I don’t remember any of this early history, because I didn’t exist yet, but there are plenty of things I do remember about Kitty and Newcomb.

Photo of the first campers at Brush Ranch. Kitty is front and center with the large sombrero with my dad, Scotty on her lap.

When I was a child, they spent most of their time at the North end of the Brush Ranch property, a part of the property we called Timberland, where there was a giant house with a red roof and a huge front lawn with a big hill that went down to the river. The front porch was the best spot to watch the world go by, with flowers out front and little sprigs of mint growing from cracks in the concrete stairs leading down to the lawn. In the winters, the living room fireplace was always ablaze and the house, though it was huge, seemed so cozy. The kitchen was giant and there was one counter top that was much lower than the others, I’ve often wondered if that was put in after Kitty and Newcomb moved in because it was so much more comfortable for Kitty! I remember their bedroom having red shag carpet–yuck! And their giant master bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. My favorite part of the house was the mysterious and dusty attic. I loved going up there and poking around in the dark and dust. There was old furniture, holiday decorations, old clothes, little bits of history, the occasional mouse, and lots and lots of other treasures! When the house was torn down, by dad saved some of the foundation and used it as the foundation for the driveway to their old house and used the front door as well. It was fun to see little bits of Timberland around after it had been torn down. (The demolition was sad but completely necessary, there were electrical wires that had been insulated with newspaper, and studs that never reached the ground! It’s a wonder it was still standing after all those years!)

Kitty was one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, and maybe that’s because she was my grandmother. She would invite anyone in for a cup of tea and cookies and she loved to hear people’s stories. She could chat with anyone for any length of time. She was genuinely interested. Her Scottish accent lured in many visitors and it would get much thicker when her Scottish relatives would come and visit. Kitty wasn’t over 5′ tall and had stocky legs and big, wide fingers. But she was absolutely beautiful, inside and out. To this very day, every time I have butter lettuce I think of her, when we were kids, she would make us steak (absolutely drenched in butter), potatoes (also drenched in butter) and salad (just butter lettuce), and to get us to eat the salad she would forego the traditional salad dressing and just sprinkle it with sugar! She was sweet to the core and loved to cook and sing and read poems. She was fascinated with the English language and had a huge dictionary that she referred to often. She enjoyed hosting parties and had more dishes and kitchen gadgets than anyone I’ve ever met. She would play dress up with us and would often let us wear her fancy fur coats and high heels. She loved to travel to New York and London and San Francisco. She made life look easy because she was so full of love and happiness.

Kitty dancing some sort of jig

Newcomb was very tall and handsome. He always had the latest gadgets (like the very first cell phone and Mac computer and a satellite dish that you could watch turn when you changed the TV channel), and was always well dressed. I remember in his later years, when he was more or less bed ridden, crawling up beside him and patiently watching golf on TV (so boring, but something he cherished). I remember he would call me his girlfriend and I thought that was just hilarious. His bright smile with deep dimples could light up a room in no time at all. I remember his always driving just a little too fast for my comfort in his giant Mercedes. He took chances and risks and was a born leader. He too loved hosting parties and partaking in festivities, and most of all he loved Kitty!

Newcomb with some of the staff in the early years. He looks to be quite the ladies man!

Newcomb passed away in 1996 and Kitty in 2001, but I see pieces of them in my dad, my brothers, myself and now my twins and I feel so lucky that World War II brought them together so many years ago. Maybe I’m just a sap, but it amazes me that what was probably a chance meeting all those years ago, grew into a great love and a story that would touch the lives of so many children over the years.

The photo at the top of this post was taken in the early 80’s and that’s my older brother in the background.