The sweetest gal around left to meet up with her husband, Joe, on September 3, 2024, just in time for supper.
Lula Faye Landis Rice was born on April 28, 1947, at the family farm in Falling Spring, VA. She was the youngest daughter of the late Emmett and Beulah Byer Landis. Lula was a 1966 graduate of Allegheny County High School (go Colts!) in Covington, VA, and was a standout player in the ladies’ softball leagues of Allegheny and Greenbrier counties.
In 1972, Lula and Joe moved to Clintonville, eventually buying a small farm in Meadow Bluff where they raised pigs, sheep, ducks, goats, chickens, cows, two ornery girls, and one surly donkey.
Lula was a devoted volunteer at Greenbrier Valley Hospice, sewing bibs for the patients and making home visits to brighten their remaining days. She eventually became a home healthcare provider for various agencies. A born caregiver, Lula became a CNA and continued to lovingly assist nursing home patients in West Virginia and Virginia.
Known as Sweet Lula because of her sunny, loving disposition she shined even brighter after the arrival of her granddaughter, Sydney Bryant, in 1992. Lula was even in the delivery room “helpfully” giving suggestions to the doctors during Sydney’s arrival. Lula enjoyed quilting, gardening, crocheting, family vacations, and reading. She will be loved and missed by so many.
In addition to her parents, nine brothers, and three sisters, Lula was predeceased by her husband of 52 years, Hiawatha “Joe” Rice, in 2018.
Sweet Lula is survived by her daughters, Patty Bryant (Wes) of Lewisburg and Terri Reynolds (Mike) of Frankford; her beloved granddaughter, Sydney Bryant, (Drew Dowdy) of Lewisburg; Terri’s stepdaughters Rebecca DeHaven of Hedgesville, West Virginia and Caroline Thorne of Roanoke, Virginia; a sister, Mary Elizabeth Davis of Annapolis, Maryland; her dearest friends Pat Tabor of Covington, Virginia, Shirley Arnold of Rupert, and Linda Carter of the Brian Center in Low Moor, Virginia; numerous nieces and nephews and the best neighbors anyone could ask for, Brian and Crystal Baldwin of Crawley.
Please honor her memory with acts of everyday kindness, avid reading, and radiant smiles. That is the finest way to honor her precious life.
Following Lula’s wish there will be no service at this time.
Online guestbook can be signed at www.morganfh.net. Arrangements by Morgan Funeral Home, Lewisburg, WV.
