Bessie D. Rice was associated with the Clarke School for at least five years in the early 20th Century, judging from various references in the Fairfax Herald. She was placing children on the honor roll in 1906 and, as principal, tasking students in 1909. A 1912 letter to the editor noted that at a previous point, she had taught students for five terms in a row.
Elizabeth D. Rice was born in Charlotte County, Virginia in 1884 or 1885 to David A. Rice, a farmer, and Sallie Bacon Smith Rice, according to census and death certificate information. Bessie was one of nine children, according to the Welchons/Carley Family Tree on Ancestry.com. Her mother died when Bessie was 12 or 13, according to findagrave.com.
Bessie completed three years of college, according to the 1940 census. In 1903, she graduated from the State Female Normal School in Farmville, now known as Longwood University, according to the university’s alumnae magazine. The school’s role was to educate teachers. In 1906, the Fairfax Herald reported that “Miss Bessie Rice, of Richmond, …will teach the Clarke School this season,” indicating that she had relocated to Richmond after getting her teaching degree and suggesting that 1906 was her first year at Clarke. For the 1906 school year, she was living in the nearby home of Rose Graham, according to the Herald. That was probably on the north side of Clarks Crossing Road where it intersects with Beulah Road, judging from Fairfax County property records and a 1915 map.
Bessie left Clarke before the 1912 school year, judging from letters to the editor of the Fairfax Herald. As of early 1914, she was staying with her sister in the Richmond area, apparently recovering from a health issue, judging from an item in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. In January 1920, she married Samuel R. Durrett in Charlottesville, according to marriage records. Interestingly, the U.S. census later that spring lists Samuel as living with his mother in a boarding house in Albermarle County; I’ve been unable to find Bessie anywhere in the 1920 census. There’s no evidence that she and Samuel had any children.
In 1927, Bessie Rice Durrett attended the annual convention of the Virginia Education Association in Richmond, co-leading a discussion on “Community and County History-Geography” for the Rural Supervisors Section, according to the Virginia Journal of Education. She herself was the Rural Supervisor for Albermarle County. The 1930 census indicates that she remained a supervisor in the public schools. Husband Samuel was a merchant and the couple owned a house valued at $8,000. The 1950 census does not list an occupation for Bessie but does indicate that she brought in other income to the family. The couple was living in Red Hill, Virginia in Albermarle County when Samuel, then an agent for the Southern Railroad, died in 1948, according to his death certificate. Sadly, in her final year of life, Bessie suffered from depression, judging from her death certificate. Elizabeth R. Durrett died of a heart attack at UVA Hospital in 1952. She’s buried with her husband in Mooreland Baptist Church Cemetery in Albermarle County.