Ethel Watts Riley

Funeral services for Mrs. Ethel Watts Riley will take place on Monday, December 20, 2010 at 1pm at Memorial Baptist Church, 3100 Vaucluse Rd., Aiken with Rev. Steve Gillette officiating. Interment will follow at Ebenezer Baptist Church Cemetery, Trenton, SC. The family will receive friends on Sunday evening from 6-8pm at George Funeral Home & Cremation Center, 211 Park Ave. SW. Memorial donations may be directed either to Memorial Baptist Church, 3100 Vaucluse Rd., Aiken, SC 29801, or to KJNP, PO Box 56359, North Pole, AK 99705-1359, where she and her husband served as missionaries for a year.

Mrs. Riley, 91, of Aiken, died Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at UPAC-Aiken. A daughter of the late Henry Franklin Watts and Azie Mae Kerby Watts, she was born in Rabun County, GA, grew up in Smyrna, GA, and had lived in Rockville, MD, Edgefield and Beech Island before moving to Aiken in 1969. She was a clerical worker for the Dept. of Agriculture before her children were born, and she worked for Aiken Cablevision, Vocational Rehabilitation, and the Aiken Co. Election Commission in the years after the youngest was in middle school. She served her Lord faithfully in her family as well as in her church, and is pleased today to be in His presence.

In addition to her parents, she was pre-deceased by her husband, Robert Austin Riley; an infant daughter, Susan; two brothers, J.C. Watts and Lee Watts; and a sister, Ruth Keown. She is survived by two sons, Joseph Charlene Riley, Waco, TX and John Carla Riley, Aiken, SC; two daughters, Beth Rev. Stephen Freeman, Oak Ridge, TN and Shirley Rev. Duncan Rankin, Evans, GA; a brother, Vaughan Watts, Tiger, GA; fourteen grandchildren and one great- grandson.