Studio-66 — Springfield, Missouri
Jerry Lee Rice was born in 1941 on a farm near Marshfield, Missouri, about six miles south of Route 66. He grew up on Route 66 — he drove the Mother Road as a boy, back when it was still the main road through town. Not many people can say that. Jerry knows that road because he lived on it.
He grew up going to the Ritz Theatre in Marshfield on Saturdays, and that theatre — and that road — stayed with him.
He served in the Navy, and after getting out in 1964, he moved to Springfield, Missouri, and married Nancy — the love of his life. Come spring, they will have been married 63 years. Springfield is the birthplace of Route 66, and Jerry has been painting the Mother Road most of his life.
Jerry and Nancy raised five children — Lance, David, Carla, Kris, and Lora. Lance and Kris have passed on.
Jerry is self-taught. He never took a lesson in his life. What he can do, he got from his Creator, naturally. He is a Jehovah's Witness — baptized in 1972 in Joplin, Missouri — and he loves his God.
His work includes historic Route 66 scenes, Springfield landmarks, portraits, and commission pieces. His first painting ever printed and released was the Ritz Theatre in Marshfield, the theatre he went to as a boy.
He paints from his studio in Springfield, Missouri.