Jimmie Paul "Jim" Rice, 83, of Tulsa passed away Thursday, 25 June 2015, from complications of Type I Diabetes Mellitus.

Born in Sayre, Beckham County, Oklahoma on 16 December 1931 to Bill Rice and Nina (Morgan) Rice, Jim was a natural 'people person' whose principle passions in life were sports and his family. His love of sports led him to the Red Carpet Ambassadors youth basketball league in Tulsa, where he played with and was mentored by future Globetrotter Legend, Marques Haynes. After spending part of World War II in San Diego, California with his mother, Jim went on to play basketball for Tulsa Central High School, graduating as part of the Class of 1950.

A Veteran of the Korean War, Jim spent most of his enlistment in the Army with the 29th Engineer Battalion (Topographic) at Camp Cavite in the Philippines where, among his duties as Battalion Clerk, he was responsible for receiving and decoding Intelligence communications, and overseeing the addition of the decoded intelligence to the maps his unit distributed to every allied military service. During his off hours, Jim's experience with the Red Carpet Ambassadors led him to organize a youth basketball league for local boys in Cavite City, and to lead his Battalion basketball team to a third place finish in the Pacific Command Inter-Services Basketball Tournament.

After being Honorably Discharged in July 1954, Jim enrolled at the School of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri, on a basketball scholarship and began studying Journalism. After a knee injury ended his sports career, Jim lost his scholarship and transferred to Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where he continued his Journalism studies. After three semesters, Jim returned to Tulsa and continued to study Journalism as a part-time student at the University of Tulsa, while working full-time as a sales representative at Oil Capitol Supply; the job that would launch a twenty-year career in the oil field supply industry.

During this time, in April 1957, Jim married Charlotte Loraine Davis, and, in 1961, the couple had their first son. The sales position at Oil Capitol led to Jim being hired by Vinson Supply Company, where he excelled as a sales representative in their oil field pipe division. In 1963, the couple had their second son, and Jim continued to prove himself at Vinson Supply, quickly becoming one of their top sales representatives. In January 1969, Vinson transferred Jim to their office in Houston, Texas, where he and his family lived for the next six and a half years.

Jim never lost his love of sports. He played golf every chance he could and, starting in 1966, coached one or both of his boys' baseball teams every year until 1976. In June 1976, Jim convinced the management at Vinson to transfer him back to the Tulsa office, and moved his family back to Oklahoma. Except for a short stint with Houston Supply Company, Jim was with Vinson until he retired from the oil field supply industry in the early 1980's, when the bottom fell out of the American oil industry. This led to Jim taking his sales experience and people skills to a new industry: residential resort sales.

Over the next few years, Jim would work for Flint Ridge Development on the Illinois River near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border, the Falconhead Development Corporation in southern Oklahoma, just west of Marietta, and developments near Canyon Lake, Texas, as well as in Oregon and South Carolina, then back to Flint Ridge.

During this time, after more than fifty years with very little illness, with his only injuries being bones broken during his athletic endeavors, Jim began to have health problems. In 1988, Jim was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes Mellitus (also known as Insulin-dependent Diabetes). Also during this time, Jim and Charlotte began to drift apart, culminating in them separating in February 2008. Their divorce was finalized in March 2015.

Between his Diabetes diagnosis in 1988 and his death in 2015, Jim would experience three heart attacks, two bypass surgeries, one surgery to implant a pacemaker, three laser surgeries on his eyes, impaired circulation in his legs, advanced osteoarthritis in the knee he injured in college, the beginnings of osteoarthritis in his 'good' knee, increasingly-chronic infections (respiratory and otherwise), loss of mobility, loss of vision in one eye, loss of hearing in one ear, and the loss of both legs just above the knees; all directly attributed to the Type I Diabetes Mellitus not being properly managed. If you are Diabetic, please, if not for yourself, then for your loved ones, diligently manage your Diabetes.

Jim is survived by his ex-wife, Charlotte L. Rice of Tulsa, Oklahoma; sons James P. Rice, II (53) of Round Rock, Texas, and Gary S. Rice (52) of San Diego, California; Granddaughters Stephanie M. Rice (25) and Christina L. Rice (21), both of Austin, Texas; Grandsons Will Rice-Sileo (18) of New York, and Jake Rice (7) of San Diego, California; and Great-Grandson Daniel Thomas (7) of Austin, Texas.

Jim will be interred with honors at the Fort Gibson National Cemetery, Fort Gibson, Muskogee County, Oklahoma, June 30, 2015 11:00 A.M.

Moore Funeral Home - Memory Chapel
918-583-6148