Life History

Other facts

Notes

• While all other public records record his name as Melton, note that the Texas Birth Index spells his first name Milton.  This record also gives us his middle name and the names of his parents and place of birth.  His daughter JoAnna tells me he always went by Joe and no one called him Melton.
  
  Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997
  Milton Joe Riley
  Birth 26 Feb 1942 Lubbock County
  Father's Name Marvin Cleo Riley
  Mother's Name Cordelia Ophelia Henson
  
  Nevada, Marriage Index, 1956-2005
  Regina Mcnamara
  Melton Joseph Riley
  Marriage Date 16 June 1962
  Recorded Clark County Marriages, Page H04
  
  Texas, Divorce Index, 1968-2014
  Regina M Riley
  Divorce Age 31 (b abt 1940)
  Melton J Riley
  Divorce Age 29 (b abt 1942)
  Marriage Date 16 Jun 1962
  Divorce 29 July 1971 Moore County, Texas, USA
  Number of Children 2
  
  Five years after his divorce from Regina, Joe married the widow LaVonna Stewart, whose husband Sheldon Earl Green had died about a year earlier.
  
  Texas, Marriage Collection, 1814-1909 and 1966-2011
  Melton J Riley
  Age 34, Birth Year abt 1942
  Marriage 9 Oct 1976 Moore County, Texas
  Spouse Lavona F Stewart
  Spouse Age 23, Est birth year 1953
  
  Joe and LaVonna's daughter JoAnna provided many details about her family.
  
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  My mother's name is LaVonna Faye Stewart (Green, Riley, Richter.)  Though, she often did not use her given name, instead she used the nickname Bunny.  She was born July 6, 1953 to Bill and Beulah Stewart in Enid, OK. She has 3 sisters.  I've always heard that they moved around often, as my grandfather was in construction and I believe that he hepled build the Table Rock Dam near where I live now in Missouri.
  
  She graduated high school in 1972 from Cassville, MO.  I do not know how or why she, my grandparents and aunts moved to Texas.  My presumption would be due to my Grandfather's work.  She then married Mr. Green and sometime after his death she met and married my father.  I was born in 1978.  I do not know what year my Grandmother died but some time after that my grandfather moved back to Missouri.
  
  I believe it might have been in 1988 or 1989 and we eventually followed him, moving there in 1990 the summer between my 5th and 6th grades.  Granddad died that same summer.
  
  My father died in 1996, about a month before my 18th birthday.  Sometime in late 1997, early 1998 she met and married a man named Gary Richter.  Mom died Sept 21, 2006.  This date also happens to be the day before my wedding anniversary.  I married my husband, James Luney, Sept. 22, 2000.
  
  My father's name is Melton Joe Riley.  NO ONE called him Melton.  He was Joe.  He was born Feb 26, 1942 in Lubbock, TX.  He liked to tell me he was born in the back of a greyhound bus.  My dad was a great kidder.  His mother was called Mabel, though her name was Cordelia Ophelia Powell.  She died when i was very young.
  
  The man I knew as my grandmother's husband was my father's stepfather, Ernest Powell.  I never knew my dad's biological father, Jack Riley, nor did my father ever speak to him.  I believe that my dad joined the Marines when he was 18.  I do not know much about that time, only that he was in Vietnam.
  
  At some point, he spent some time in Pennsylvania. He and his first wife had a daughter.  My sister (step-sister) was born in 1972.  My father died November 15, 1996.
  
  My father, mother, and grandfather's (mother's father) graves are located in Berryhill cemetary in Washburn, MO.  It is a tiny family (mother's family) cemetary.
  --  JoAnna Riley Luney, email to Orville Boyd Jenkins, 25 May 2013
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  U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010
  Melton Riley
  Birth Date 26 Feb 1942
  Death Date 15 Nov 1996
  Cause of Death Natural
  SSN 456662239
  
  U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
  Melton Joe Riley [Melton Riley]
  Birth 26 Feb 1942 Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas
  Death Date 15 Nov 1996
  Father Marvin Riley
  Mother Kerdilia O Henson
  SSN 456662239
  Signature on SSN Card Joe Riley
  Jan 1958 Name listed as MELTON JOE RILEY; 12 Nov 1996 Name listed as MELTON RILEY
  
  Social Security Death Index
  Melton Riley
  Born 26 Feb 1942
  Died 15 Nov 1996
  SSN 456-66-2239 issued Texas (1957-1958)
  
  The SSDI does not report Melton's last residence address.  I found a record of his burial in Washburn, Missouri, but have seen no record yet of the actual place of death or last residence.
  
  U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca.1775-2006
  M Joe Riley
  Service US MARINE CORPS VIETNAM
  Birth Date 26 Feb 1942
  Death Date 15 Nov 1996
  Burial Berryhill Cemetery, Washburn, MO 65772
  
  Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current
  Joe Riley, Male
  Death Age 54 (b abt 1942)
  Residence Exeter
  Death Date Nov 1996
  Burial Washburn (Barry County, Missouri)
  Obituary published 17 Nov 1996 Springfield, Missouri, United States of America
  
  The name in his memorial on Find a Grave is Michael instead of Melton.
  
  Melton Joe Riley
  Birth Feb 26, 1942 Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas, USA
  Death Nov 15, 1996 Barry County, Missouri, USA
  Burial Berryhill Cemetery, Washburn, Barry County, Missouri
  Parents Marvin C Riley 1913-1979
  Maintained by JFI, Originally Created by Jody May 12, 2007
  --  Find A Grave Memorial #19348200, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19348200/melton-riley

Sources

• 1. Find a Grave Memorial Registry
• 2. U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca.1775-2006
• 3. JoAnna Riley Luney
• 4. Texas, Birth Index, 1903-1997
• 5. Social Security Death Index
• 6. Texas Marriage Index, 1847-2002
• 7. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
• 8. Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current
• 9. Texas, Divorce Index, 1968-2014
• 10. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010
• 11. Nevada, Marriage Index, 1956-2005
• 12. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014
• 13. Ancestry Trees
• 14. U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1