Viola F Rice (Fritzi) passed away peacefully at home on August 19, 2025. She was 93 years old, lived a full life and was ready to "go home". When she was a child, she was always moving and always happy and was given the nickname SnickelFritz. It stuck. Bankers and doctors called her Viola, but family and friends called her Mama, Grandma or Fritzi.  Fritzi treasured her family above all else. She also loved plants, rain, puttering in her yard, visiting around a fire pit, garage sales and thrift stores, and learning new things.

Fritzi was born in Texas to German/Irish immigrants John Henry and Margaretta (Thurlow) Kolster. She had two older sisters and a younger brother. She grew up to understand the value of hard work and perseverance.  Her family lived in what would be considered poverty today, but they made the best of what they had. Fritzi loved nature and knew the names of plants and birds.  It is a family joke that if she did not know the name of a bird, she just called it a "field bird". Fritzi admired, revered, and respected her parents and had a close affectionate relationship with all of her siblings. Her childhood was happy.

When she was 18, she married her high school sweetheart, Stanley Clifford Sanderford. At age 23 she had her first child, Cynthia Lee, followed by Stanley Ray and Scott Clifford. The family lived several places in Texas, but mostly in Uvalde. In 1969 Stanley and Fritzi learned about an opportunity to move to Alaska to teach Eskimos with much better salaries than they were making in Texas. In the fall of 1969 they began teaching Eskimo students in very rural Alaska. Adventure ensued including northern lights, snow machines, honey buckets and a whole new culture.  In 1973 Fritzi was widowed for the first time and moved to Anchorage Alaska to teach in the school district system there.

Fritzi met Clarence Edgar Rice at a 55 and older dance club. Ed was quite the dancer and was totally smitten by Fritzi. He was 17 years her senior. They married in 1981. Ed had a homestead property near Big Lake Alaska that he called Rice's Slice (of heaven). Ed was thrilled that Fritz loved the property as much as he did and enjoyed improving and working on it with him. Ed died in 1993. Fritzi and all of her family enjoyed the Homestead property until Fritzi sold it in 2012.

Fritzi met Robert Venhaus in 1996 and he was her life partner until his death June 5, 2025. Bob was always ready to go and the two of them made many trips and cruises together. They moved permanently to Green Valley Arizona in 2012 where Fritzi's son Ray and daughter Cynthia also lived. Having her family close was the greatest gift of Fritzi's life.

Fritzi is preceded in death by her son Scotty, her parents and siblings and their spouses, three husbands, her daughter in law Christine and her dear friend Edith. She is survived by two children, a son-in-law, and four grandchildren.