Lee Marvin Rice

This photo of Lee Marvin Rice (1892-1984), son of John Wesley Rice and Rebecca Jane (Hole) Rice, was published January 5, 1987 in the Fresno Bee, along with a story on Rice by writer Gene Rose (link). Rice was born in Watts Valley. Marvin Rice, also called Lee Rice and L. M. Rice, was an artist and writer of some note. His best known book, They Saddled the West (1974), is a detailed history of the saddle-makers of the western United States and the development of the modern western saddle. A noted saddle-maker for the Visalia Saddle Company, Rice also published, with Bruce Grant, How to Make Cowboy Horse Gear, and many articles in Western Horseman Magazine, Pacific Sportsman, Fur-Fish-Game, and Western Out-of-Doors among others. As a commercial artist, he created illustrations for Levi-Strauss ads and several covers for Sunset. He also was a fine artist of some talent and produced many fine sketches, chalks, and oils. He was a friend and student of western artist Maynard Dixon.

Although he had become a successful commerical artist by the 1920's, Rice continued to do the work he loved as a cowboy working for several large ranches in the San Joaquin Valley and Central Sierra Nevada, among them Bob and Ed Simpson, who headquartered near Academy, Fresno County.