07/26/11  Frederick Rice  -  Germantown, Tennessee  -  Mk-III #770  -  Member from 12/27/00 to 07/01/10 

"Flyin' Freddie" Frederick Rice III passed away after a sudden and unexpected onset of cancer. He was 62 years of age.

Freddie liked his Superformance, and like his Scotch. From the highlands to the lowlands. Freddie liked good barbeque, and he was good at barbequing it. He liked his margaritas and made his margarita machine famous. Freddie loved his dad the Colonel, and spoke of him regularly long after he passed, just as if he were in the room with you.

But most of all, Freddie love his wife and his twin sons, Will and Drew, whom he included in nearly every conversation, whether they were near or far.

Freddie and his boys spent the evening at our home when they were up picking up my father's Model-A Ford. Freddie treated his very young boys with the respect and courtesy as if they were adults, even though in reality, they were just three big kids. Almost  as if their were triplets.

Freddie's cancer came about so sudden he barely had time to prepare, and while the suffering was great, luckily it was also short. Like only Freddie did, instead of worrying about his departure or taking time for sorrow, he made sure all of his family affairs were in order and all loose ends were completed before leaving this world. And that included making sure he said all his goodbyes to both family, and friends. At times you would forget as if it seemed like he was preparing to leave on a trip. And, he was.

Freddie left suddenly, but not quietly did he go into that good night. Freddie left a pair of marks behind him that will never fade, and lived life loud and proud. You don't really "miss" a person like that, as much as you remember all the good times, and wait patiently until one day you are able to meet him once again.

-Randall & Diane Thomas,
   Superformance Owners Assn.

This was printed in the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee by Jody Callahan

(ED: this version was edited below and "Freddie" was substituted for "Mr. Rice"... For if  And if he were reading this, Freddie would say, "hey, yer not talking about me, Mr. Rice is my dad's name". And I'm pretty sure he is reading this...)


"No tears for 'Flying Freddie' - Fast car fan sought a celebration of life"

(left)  Freddie's famous margarita machine facing out of his hotel room window, which he and close friend Ron Froh's  took along with him to most of his weekend outings and events.

He always did so, never asking for a donation but when offered, they were graciously accepted.

Freddie was a program management adviser at FedEx, and he lay dying from cancer, he gave his family a strict edict: no tears.

"I don't want a funeral where everyone is standing around crying, mourning over me," he told his wife Karen. "I want my friends to celebrate my life." So, after the funeral on Saturday, after they mourn his passing, Freddie's friends and family are going to the East End Grill, one of his favorite haunts, to have a party. They will celebrate his "zest for life," as he wanted.

"He was a character. He was so much fun," his wife said. "He was very charismatic. He was fun. He was jolly."  The funeral procession might look a little odd, though. That's because Freddie was a devoted car enthusiast, with his latest obsession being a Shelby Cobra replica.

So Freddie's fellow Cobra owners plan to escort his cremated remains to the party in his honor. That seems fitting for a guy sometimes called "Flying Freddie," a man who loved anything with speed.

"They are race cars with license plates on them," said Ron Frohs, his friend and fellow Cobra owner. "Any guy that's a car guy has a love for American horsepower and speed." Freddie first fell in love with cars when he bought a Camaro in his younger days. Over the years, that car was followed by another Camaro as well as a Porsche 944, Porsche 911 and a 1929 Model A Ford, among others.

Twice a year, Freddie and his friends took their cars to racetracks around the country to indulge that need for speed, often pushing the Cobras past 150 mph, Frohs said. Of course, anyone who owns such a car, and has experience driving it that fast, must have trouble staying under the speed limit on regular roads, right?

"In the 38 years that we were married, he hardly ever got a speeding ticket," Karen Rice said. "He did not go over the speed limit. He would race the car in North Carolina or Ohio, but when he was on the street, he obeyed the speed limit."

ED: Somehow, I see Freddie's red face with that big trademark smile in clear view looking at his speedometer... And it's A-ok.

Below is a poster some of his friends sent him while he was in the hospital to cheer him up during his last days...