Milton Paul Rice (September 30, 1920 – January 1, 2018) was an American politician in the state of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. He served as

Attorney General of Tennessee The Tennessee Attorney General (officially, Attorney General and Reporter) is a position within the Tennessee state government. The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer and lawyer for Tennessee. The current office holder is Jona ...

in 1974 and as

Secretary of State of Tennessee The Tennessee Secretary of State is an office created by the Tennessee State Constitution. The Secretary of State is responsible for many of the administrative aspects of the operation of state government of Tennessee. The current Secretary of ...

from 1989 to 1990.

Biography

Rice was born in Florence, Alabama and grew up in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

Leland, Mississippi Leland is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. It is located within the Mississippi Delta, on the banks of Deer Creek. The population was 4,481 at the 2010 census. It was once a railway town and had long been a center of cott ...

Camden, Tennessee Camden is a city in Benton County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,674 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Benton County. History Native Americans were living in the Camden area as early as the Archaic period (8000-1000 B ...

and

Jackson, Tennessee Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population was 68,205 as of the 2020 United States census. Jackson ...

, where he attended public schools. He went to Jackson High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lambuth College in 1942. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Rice served in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

and attended the

United States Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School The United States Navy Reserve Midshipmen's School was an expedited auxiliary naval officer training program instituted in June 1940. Its goal was to train a planned 36,000 Naval Reserve officers for commands in the vastly-expanding U.S. Navy flee ...

. He became an ensign and served on the USS James O'Hara (APA-90). He served until 1946. After the war, Rice attended the

Vanderbilt University School of Law Vanderbilt University Law School (also known as Vanderbilt Law School or VLS) is a graduate school of Vanderbilt University. Established in 1874, it is one of the oldest law schools in the southern United States. Vanderbilt Law School has consiste ...

to receive a juris doctor. He later worked in the Tennessee Department of Revenue and served as Assistant Attorney General of Tennessee from 1950 until 1967, when he assumed the position of Deputy Attorney General. He also was Commissioner of Insurance and Banking from 1969 to 1971. He was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

and a member of Belle Meade United Methodist Church in Nashville. He was married to Rebecca McDaniel from 1950 until her death in 1973, and to Sara Batson from 1974 until her death in 2012. Rice died in January 2018 at the age of 97.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Milton P. 1920 births 2018 deaths Lambuth University alumni Military personnel from Alabama Politicians from Florence, Alabama Secretaries of State of Tennessee Tennessee Attorneys General Vanderbilt University Law School alumni State insurance commissioners of the United States 20th-century American naval officers