K. McDowell (Katharine McDowell) Rice

Katharine McDowell Rice wrote children’s stories and humorous plays, often publishing as K. McDowell Rice. Catalog and library sources connect her with works such as Stories for All the Year, Dr. Hardhack’s Prescription, and Mrs. Tubb’s Telegram, showing a career that moved easily between fiction and stage pieces.

Archival material also ties her closely to Worthington, Massachusetts, where local collections preserve notebooks, clippings, and play-related papers. One surviving diary and miscellany volume from 1918 to 1921 suggests she remained actively engaged in writing and theatrical work well into the twentieth century.

Some details of her life are harder to confirm cleanly from the sources available here, so it seems safest to remember her chiefly as a versatile American author and playwright whose work was meant to be read aloud, performed, and enjoyed by young audiences and community performers.