Windlind Smith

Windland "Wendy" Smith Rice was the first child of the founder of FedEx, Frederick W. Smith. Her father named FedEx's first plane "Wendy" after her in 1973. She became an accomplished photographer of nature and animals. The movie, "P.S. I love you," was produced by her sister, Molly, in her honor. Windland attended St. Mary's Episcopal School in Memphis, Tennessee. The school now has a state of the art library and classroom building that bears her name. She attended Duke University in 1992, where she studied drama. She completed photography commissions for organizations such as Fujifilm, the National Geographic Society, and Nature's Best Photography Magazine. Her work won several awards and has been exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The annual Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards are also named after her. She acccompanied the second pair of pandas sent from China to the National Zoo in 2000 in a FedEx plane that was repainted to say "Panda I." She photographed the pandas for Fujifilm who have used her work around the world. Windland Smith Rice died suddenly in Memphis, Tennessee while visiting her mother, Linda Grisham Smith McFarland, of an undiagnosed genetic heart condition called Long QT Syndrome Type 2. The Mayo Clinic has since opened the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory. At the Long QT Syndrome Clinic, research efforts are devoted to identifying individuals at greatest risk for autopsy negative sudden death. Athletes, in particular, are susceptible-Windland was a triathlete and marathon runner. A few weeks after Windland's death, her sister, Molly Smith, read Cecelia Ahern's debut novel "P.S. I Love You." She found such comfort in the story that she read it several times and ended up producing the movie. The movie has an all-star cast including Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, Harry Connick Jr. and Kathy Bates. At the end of the movie, which was partially funded by her father, there is a dedication to Windland Smith Rice. Windland had five sisters and three brothers. She resided in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with her husband and children. She was married to Jeffrey Scott Rice. They had two sons together; Mason Frederick Rice (born in 2003) and Alden James Rice (born in 2004.)