Grace E. Rice was born on July 1, 1876, in Connecticut to Jesse Hull Rice and Caroline Holbrook. His father was a farmer who owned $2,000 of real estate by 1870. She grew up and attended school in Cheshire, Connecticut, and the family moved to New Haven, Connecticut, around 1892. By 1900, she was working as a bookkeeper. She apparently never married. She lived with her parents in New Haven until their deaths in 1915 and 1931. By 1940, she was working as a nurse. She remained in New Haven for the rest of her life, and she died there on October 21, 1953.