Thomas Riley Jr

Thomas Morgan Riley, Jr., 89, Independence, MO passed away Jan. 17, 2012. A memorial service will be held at 2 pm, Sunday at the First Presbyterian Church of Independence, 100 N. Pleasant, Independence, MO 64050. Visitation will follow the service. A private burial will take place at Woodlawn Cemetery at a later date.
Tom was born Oct. 9, 1923 in McGehee, AR. He graduated from Little Rock High School in 1942. He attended Arkansas State Teachers College before earning a B.A. from Louisiana State University in 1950. He earned an M.A. from George Peabody College for Teachers in 1952 and later attended Kansas City University He served as a classroom teacher in Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri before serving as an elementary school principal for thirty years. Twenty-eight of those years were serving the Independence School District at Oldham, Hanthorne, McCoy and Glendale Elementary schools.
Tom was a Master Mason at VanLeer, TN and Lodge #76 in Independence, MO. He earned his amateur Radio Operators license, Advanced Class in 1969 and was a member of the Army Military Affiliate Radio System. He was certified by the Library of Congress as a Braille transcriber on June 20, 1989 and transcribed for the Beth Shalom Sisterhood Braille Committee, the Reorganized Church of Later Days Saints in Independence and the Kansas State School for the Blind. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Independence since joining in May, 1954 and was an ordained Deacon, a member of the Board of Trustees, an ordained Elder and a Clerk of Session. He was the President of the Independence Community Teachers Assoc. from 1958-59; President of the Independence Retired Teachers Assoc. from 1992-94 and President of the Independence Knife and Fork Club from 1993-94. He was a U.S. Army veteran of WW II.
Tom was preceded in death by his parents Thomas M. Riley, Sr. and Annie Myrtle (Trimm) Riley and sisters Elizabeth I. (Riley) Ison and Martha Ann (Riley) Jackson. He is survived by wife Alice Marie (Bangert) Riley, Independence, MO; children Grace Anne (Riley) Price, GA; Coleman Alan Riley, Fremont, CA; step-children Lance B. Powell, Anchorage, AK; Dean F. Powell, Prairie Village, KS; David L. Bangert, St. Louis, MO; Dr. Jean Marie Hampton, Overland Park, KS; Joan Elaine Mann, Manhattan, KS; nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren