Riley, Essie Mae 'Jessica'

Essie Mae “Jessica” Riley

Passed away peacefully Saturday, July 20, 2013, at the Oldorf Hospice House in Hiawatha, with her loving son Robert at her side.

Jessie, as she was known by her friends, was a true child of the Great Depression, being born in a dirt floor log cabin in Calico Rock, Ark., on Dec. 11, 1934, the fourth of seven children born to Howard and Verda Milam. Her family relocated to Wellman, Iowa, in 1939 and later to Westchester. She attended one-room country schools and became the first in her family to graduate high school, in 1953 from Westchester High School. She was married to Ronald Joseph Kucera from 1953 to 1957.

On Aug. 3, 1962, she was married to John Riley in Rockford, Ill., and she raised his two sons, Michael and Kevin, as her own. Essie and John had one child together, Robert, who came along in 1967. This union ended in 1988.

In 1958, she attended the International Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses at New York's Yankee Stadium and Polo grounds with 253,000 others and this had a profound effect on the course of her life. She was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses on May 25, 1963, in Burlington, Iowa, and was a member of the McCloud Springs Congregation in Cedar Rapids at her death.

Jessie had many endearing qualities, generosity, self-sufficiency and a great sense of humor, to name some. The jobs she held much of her adult life reflected her great capacity for love of neighbor. Her training at Kirkwood College led her to social work and family counseling and further nursing education enabled her to work as a caregiver in various nursing homes and finally as a home care worker for St. Luke's and Kelly Services.

Jessie will be remembered as a loving mother, an adoring granny to her “boys,” Alexander and Joseph, and a caring friend to members of her extended Christian family.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Howard and Verda (Coyle) Milam; sisters, Gwendolyn Henderson, Gladys Kucera and Aileen Kelly; and a brother, Harold Milam.

Surviving her are a brother, James Milam of Westchester; a sister, Linda Thompson of Washington, Iowa; a brother-in-law, Joe Kucera of Orlando, Fla.; sons, Robert (Chandra) Riley of Cedar Rapids, Mike Riley of Cedar Rapids and Kevin Riley of Marion; and grandsons, Alexander and Joseph Riley.

A memorial service is planned for 7 p.m. Aug. 2 at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, 2204 26th St. NW, Cedar Rapids. Services will be performed by family friend Yale Jaeger of Cedar Rapids.

Published in The Gazette July 24, 2013.