Steadfast Threads: The Life and Lineage of Jefferson Benjamin Trice

Basic Information

Early Life and Background

Jefferson Benjamin Trice was born on February 21, 1890, into a Texas that was still finding its 20th century rhythm. Records place his childhood around Belton and the Waco region, and by 1910 he appears in more rural precincts farther south, a sign of a family on the move. The pattern reads like a map of opportunity: small town beginnings, seasonal shifts, and eventual migration westward.

He registered for the World War I draft in McLennan County in 1917 or 1918, a bureaucratic footprint that reflects the moment without confirming battlefield service. The draft card fingerprints a particular kind of American masculinity, one grounded in duty but more often expressed through work and family than through headlines.

The name Trice threads through census pages and city directories as a steady presence rather than a public figure. He grew up in a household tied to local commerce and community, and he spent his adult life stitching together a livelihood that required mobility, resilience, and the persistence of someone who could sell an idea as well as a product.

Family Overview

Family was the axis of Trice life. He married Pearl Guinn, born in 1884, and together they raised three children under the shadow of national upheaval and local change. The first son, Jefferson Benjamin Trice Jr., was born November 17, 1914, and died March 28, 1970. The second son, Billy Guinn Trice, born in 1917, died in childhood in 1919. The third child, Marguerite Gwynne Trice, born December 10, 1918, would later become known to the public as Anne Gwynne.

The household moved with the currents of commerce and family needs. In 1920 the family lived in Waco, in 1930 they were in San Antonio, and by 1940 they had settled in Los Angeles. Those relocations mirror Jefferson Trice employment as a traveling salesman, a profession that required routes, hotel rooms, and an uncanny ability to read people.

Anne Gwynne would go on to act in films and become a pin up figure for the wartime generation, bringing a kind of reflected fame to a family whose patriarch remained rooted in quieter pursuits. Grandchildren include Gwynne Gilford, born in 1946, and among great grandchildren is actor Chris Pine, born in 1980, whose visibility illuminated a genealogy that had otherwise stayed modest and private.

Professional Path

Jefferson Trice earned his living in the apparel and clothing trade. He is described in family recollections and records as a traveling salesman and an associate of shirt or clothing manufacturers. The trade demanded travel, negotiation, and a practical sensibility; it also produced the geographical arc that carried his family from Texas to California.

There are no headline achievements or patents to his name, nor are there records of large estates or public offices. Instead, his career reads like a ledger of steady effort. He engaged in business ventures and sales roles that anchored a household and enabled his children to pursue their own lives, including one that touched Hollywood. Financial specifics are scarce, suggesting a stable working class life rather than affluence.

Later Years and Legacy

After Pearl died in 1955, Jefferson lived another quarter century, witnessing grandchildren and later great grandchildren come of age. He died October 16, 1981, at age 91. His life spanned nine decades of dramatic change, from horse and buggy country roads to the motorways and studio lots of mid century America.

His legacy is quiet and indirect. He did not build monuments. Instead he seeded a family line that would touch popular culture through acting and cinema. The lineage is a slow bloom: daughter Anne found fame on screen, granddaughter Gwynne Gilford pursued acting, and great grandson Chris Pine rose to international recognition. The family narrative is less about a single flash of glory and more about continuity, craftsmanship, and the small, steady choices that pass opportunity across generations.

Timeline

Personal Sketches and Character

Jefferson Trice presents as a buttoned figure in the photograph of family history. He is the archetype of a steady provider, a man who traveled highways before them became freeways and who measured his worth by the family that gathered at his table. He did not court the spotlight; he preferred the ledger, the route, the handshake. If his life were fabric, it would be homespun cotton rather than silk, durable and unornamented.

His mobility was practical rather than adventurous. Moves were responses to work and family needs, not flamboyant reinventions. Yet those moves shaped a legacy. By taking his family to California he opened a path that would lead, years later, into the orbit of film and stage.

FAQ

Who was Jefferson Benjamin Trice?

Jefferson Benjamin Trice was a Texas born traveling salesman in the apparel trade, born February 21, 1890, and died October 16, 1981 in Los Angeles.

What members of his family became famous?

His daughter Anne Gwynne became a Hollywood actress and pin up figure, and his great grandson Chris Pine became a widely known actor.

Where is he buried?

He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

What was his occupation?

He worked primarily as a traveling salesman for clothing or shirt manufacturers and participated in various business ventures.

Did he serve in the military?

He registered for the World War I draft in McLennan County, Texas, but there is no confirmed record of active military service.

What cities did he live in?

He lived in Belton and Waco Texas, spent time in La Salle County and San Antonio, and later settled in Los Angeles, California.