DR. THERESA CACHUELA RICE
08/27/1932 - 01/02/2023
Born Theresa Directo Cachuela on 8/25/32 to Igmedio and Maxima Cachuela in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, she passed away peacefully in her sleep 1/2/23. Dr. Theresa Rice packed a lot of personality into her diminutive frame and avidly enjoyed sports, travelling, and adventures. She was the youngest of 5 sisters and chose not to follow the customs of homemaking or teaching, but to become a doctor, earning her medical degree from University of Santo Tomas, Manila.
Dr. Cachuela immigrated in 1956 and at a time when environments were challenging to a female, foreign-born physician, and continued her surgical training in Chattanooga TN, Atlanta GA, Lexington KY, Youngstown OH, and Winnipeg MB. She may have needed a step stool to examine patients and perform operations, but she was also valued for her petite hands that performed delicate operations.
Sponsored by the town of Whitehall WI, to be their surgeon, Dr. Cachuela was welcomed warmly and had many anecdotes of the Filipina adjusting to Wisconsin winters. One of her patients, Sylvia Rice, invited Theresa to meet her son Gregory. They married in 1974. Son William was born shortly afterward, and the Rice trio lived in Eau Claire WI before moving in 1982 to Kingwood TX.
Dr. Rice held private practice for many years, then returned to the hospital setting as a locum tenens doctor, traveling to rural hospitals in the Houston region to work shifts as their emergency room physician. Her husband Greg preceded her in death in 1990. In 2007, Theresa married John M. Hunnicutt Ph.D., formerly of Wisconsin and Washington, who passed away in 2012. Theresa remained active for many years, earning a black belt in martial arts, skydiving on her 65th birthday, competing in senior tennis tournaments, skiing, travelling, singing and dancing, until Alzheimer’s dementia affected her later years.
Theresa is survived by son William Tracy Rice, daughter-in-law Tabitha, and grandchildren Mackenzie, Matthew, and Max; cousins Ann Marek, Becky Rice, John Sundstrom, Ellen Everson, Ron Everson; and nieces and nephews and their families including Margie Stoy, Kristi Osborne, Mabel Solis, Joel Solis, Geoune Papasin, Anna Martino, Jennifer Hoh, and TJ Martin. Memorial services are at St. Vincent de Paul’s on 1/17/23 at 10:30am, with the option to join livestream, and internment in Rosewood Cemetery in Humble at a later time. We celebrate her rich legacy of care, service, and helping others.