Clyde Rex Rice was born on April 13, 1920 in Stillwater, Payne, Oklahoma, USA to parents Benjamin Lawson Rice (1887-1947) and Glenn Jones (1889-1975). He had siblings Laura Evelyn Rice (1913-2005), Percy Glenn Rice (1915-1922), Carrie Helen Rice (1918-1982), and Billie Lee Rice (1922-2000).
On February 10, 1946 he married Harriet Kresge Moyer (1924–2007) in Bethlehem, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, USA. The couple lived in Morrison, Noble, Oklahoma, USA and had two children together including a son Charles Rex Rice (1948-1952).