Wednesday, September 8, 2010

In Memoriam: Carole McClendon Rike, 1941-2010

Photo, right: Carole (right) and daughter Zoe at Bosworth Field, 1976

Carole Rike, American Branch member since the early 1970s, passed away peacefully on August 3, surrounded by her family.

Carole's longevity of Ricardian service exceeds that of anyone in the American Branch, and possibly of the entire Society. She served on the board and/or as editor of the Ricardian Register without interruption since 1985, working with eight consecutive branch chairs. She served, at one time or another, as vice chair, recording secretary, membership chair, sales officer, and treasurer.

Sharing a birthday with Benjamin Franklin, Carole was -- like Franklin -- a printer and a pundit, running a successful graphic design and printing business in New Orleans. She printed the Register continuously for twenty-five years and for all but three of those years also served as its editor.

Carole's Ricardian conversion was described in a Wall Street Journal article (March 13, 1991):

Carole Rike, a New Orleans Ricardian who runs a word processing and printing business, describes her own conversion after reading the Tey book as sudden, total and a trial to her loved ones. "I became rabid," she says. "My children would walk around the house pretending to have a hunchback or they would make some comment at the dinner table about the kind of man who smother his nephew with pillows, and I'd be in tears. It's as if you'd discovered that what you had always believed -- that life is fair -- isn't true."

Many converts suffer lonely years before they discover the
Richard III Society, usually by happening upon one of the annual notices the society places in newspapers on the anniversary of Richard's death (August 22). "It was like coming out of the closet," says Ms. Rike. "Who else do you know who wants to talk about Richard III? Nobody."

At least once in their lifetimes, American Ricardians try to take the Ricardian bus tour of
England. Ms. Rike remembers Bosworth Field, where the group laid a wreath, as a high point. "We'd climb over the barbed wire looking for the well where Richard drank before battle, and the farmer would come out and scream at us to get out of his field," she says. "Now it's a big tourist deal."

In addition to her work for the American Branch and for her own business, Carole was active in a number of other volunteer organizations -- the Register wasn't the only newsletter she published. She printed the Tennessee Williams Literary Journal, and was active in the New Orleans Personal Computer Club, Save Our Cemeteries, and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. (The other family business, Rike Services, is a petroleum engineering consulting and training firm, and Carole was very much involved with that as well.)

Some of Carole's other interests (or passions) included shih-tzus, gardening and especially orchids. One of the joys of her last few months was the construction of a greenhouse on her property in Tickfaw.

Carole is survived by her husband, Jim Rike; her daughter Zoe Duplantis and partner Robert Ringenberg; her grandson Connor Ringenberg; and several siblings.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Memorial Service at LAKE LAWN METAIRIE FUNERAL HOME, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. (in Metairie Cemetery), on Monday, September 13, 2010 at 6:30 P.M. Visitation will begin at 4:30 P.M. To view and sign the Family Guest Book, go to www.lakelawnmetairie.com.