Thelma Mattox Obituary

She lived a long, productive and spirit-filled life. She loved to bake, embroider, do word puzzles, and, in her last days, diligently working in her Adult coloring books. She claimed that each page she completed was more beautiful than the last.

As a little girl, Ruby Thelma Rice was taught by her grandfather never to "hold her hands," or sit around doing nothing. She learned to clean, cook, bake, serve and sew at an early age. These things, her love of family and her faith in God sustained her through life and brought her great joy and satisfaction.

When Thelma came to New Jersey in the late 1940s, she had no intentions of staying. She wound up making a home and a life in the cities of Newark and East Orange, living in those cities for over 70 years. She entered into hospice at home care in October 2024 and peacefully passed from this life to be with the Lord on Tuesday, July 14, 2025, after several years of declining health. She was 99 years old.

Ruby Thelma Rice was born in Cowpens, South Carolina on February 25, 1926. Her father, Thomas Jasper Rice, was a traveling cook for the workers building the railroad in that part of the state. The only memory she had of her mother, "Miz Emma,"- Emma Lee Glenn Rice - was of her sitting with her father in a rocking chair while her long hair swept the floor. When she was two years old, her mother and younger brother died, and she was sent to live with William Douglas and Corrie Jacks Glenn, her maternal grandparents, and with several of her aunts and uncles in Whitmire, SC. She started school in the nursery class of the one-room schoolhouse in Spring Hill AME Church where she first met her life-long friend, the late Pernettia Rice Rowell.

Eventually reunited with her siblings and father, who secured the position of Head Cook at Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC, she attended Bell Street School in that town until she first started working when she was about 16. She worked in many places, including for the then-mayor of Forrest City NC. She also married the late Rupert McIntyre and moved to Portsmouth, VA where she worked in the Navy Yard before moving to Washington to again live with her family and work in the New State Department on 21st Street.

In late 1947 her sister called for her to come to Newark, NJ to care for her oldest son, Roy, Jr. while she went to give birth to her younger son, Frederick. A severe snowstorm and a case of the measles caused her to stay in New Jersey. Through her in-laws, she met Sylvester Mattox. They married in 1951, purchased a house at 218 South 12th Street, and made a home for three children: glenda raye in 1952, Larry Sylvern in 1953 and the late Charles Edward in 1957.

When the children were small, Thelma worked in the home, baking cakes and sewing clothes for other people. When they were old enough to go to school, she went back to work; as a chambermaid in a motel, assumed janitorial duties and driving students to and from the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and at Alexander's Department store in Edison, NJ before her retirement in 1991. She put her daughter through college with this job and, when done with that, rewarding herself with her first and only new car -that Pepto pink, 1975 Mercury Cougar that turned heads from Jersey to South Carolina.

In 1971, she found a permanent church home with Faith Temple Original Freewill Baptist Church #1 in East Orange under the leadership of Bishop L.N. Forbes. She faithfully attended Sunday services until her recent illness and the church could always count on her baking contributions to the numerous dinners and special events. At the time of her passing, she was the oldest living member of the church.

The house on 12th Street burned down in 1979, and Thelma moved to East Orange, settling at the Arlington House Apartments, and eventually becoming the longest living resident there. In the first years of her retirement she was a caretaker for disabled elderly people, and spent her free time indulging her love of reading and embroidering quilts.

With the help of her niece, she was able to travel back to South Carolina for a reunion with her life-long friend Pernettia, and, in 2024, to visit her hometown "one last time." She entered hospice at home care in October 2024 and passed from this life to be with the Lord on Tuesday, July 14. She was 99-years old.

Thelma will be missed and remembered by many, including her daughter and son, glenda and Larry Mattox, both of East Orange, NJ; three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

She is also survived by one devoted niece Dr. Marye Ellen Byrd, of Lansdale, PA; four nephews: Roy Byrd and his wife, Karin Krueger, of Harlem and Shelter Island, NY along with their sons and grandchildren; Michael and Ronald Rice of Greensboro, NC and Curtis Rice, of Clinton, SC. Additionally, she will be missed by a special cousin, Matthew Reid and his wife Judy, of Ithaca, NY along with their children. Also mourning her loss but celebrating her transition are several goddaughters including Janice Brinkley, East Orange, NJ; Martha Davis, Greensboro, NC and Betty Spaight, Charleston, SC; godsons Ray Davis, East Orange, NJ and Charlie Davis, Accra, Ghana.

A special acknowledgement to health aide "Mercita,"along with Cynthia Barracks and the staff of Compassionate Care Hospice for their diligence and concern in her final days.

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

- 2 Timothy 4:7-8