Rebecca Thompson Rhine

Rebecca Thompson Rhine passed away on September 12, 2026, after living gracefully and optimistically with cancer for seven years.

Born on April 21st 1951, to Alice (Debbie) Day Thompson and John Thompson in Niagara Falls, New York, she was the middle of three sisters. As the family followed her father’s career with Dupont, she was raised in Kinston, North Carolina before moving to Hamm, Germany at fifteen where she attended Windsor Girls School. There she began a lifelong love of travel, history, and literature.

She attended East Carolina University before becoming one of the first regional saleswomen in the Southeast. While living in Charlotte, she met the love of her life Don Rhine at a work golf tournament and they spent 38 happy years together. After spending a few years in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, they moved to Wilmington, NC in 1986. Together, they developed Pelican Reef in Hampstead, where she was proud to have created a community where nature and history were preserved.

Rebecca loved reading, animals, golf, and gardening. She was a member of the Temple of Israel, and she and Don created the Rhine Family Endowment for Jewish History at UNCW. She was an active volunteer, including serving on the boards of Opera House Theatre company and the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society and coaching Topsail Middle School’s Battle of the Books team. A fan of Wake Forest, the Cleveland Browns, and Minnesota Vikings, she loved football - even in defeat.

She loved children and always had an open ear and a smile. Her family was the joy of her life and she was thrilled to live to become “Grandbecs”/ “Beebecs” and to watch her eldest grandchildren, nieces, and nephews begin adventures of their own.

A self-described Pollyanna, Becky found joy even in life’s challenges and never met a stranger. Only Rebecca could go to a restaurant in Arezzo and leave with the owner as a lifelong pen pal. Her spirit awed her loved ones and the extraordinary team at UNC Cancer hospital where she defied her Stage IV cancer diagnosis for seven years with unwavering positivity.