Opaline Snow Riley

Mrs. Opaline Snow Riley, 84, passed away peacefully at the Joan & Howard Woltz Hospice Home in Dobson, NC on Saturday morning, April 20, 2019. She was born to the late Connie Richard and Ella McCraw Snow in the Zephyr community of Surry County on February 21, 1935.  She married Bill Riley on December 24, 1956.  She graduated from Dobson High School and enjoyed attending her high school reunions each year. She retired from the Yadkin County Board of Elections as the elections supervisor in 1995 and previously worked in clerical positions at Spainhour’s, Northwestern Regional Library, Dan Beck Ford and Riley Livestock Market. Mrs. Riley also served on the Selective Service Board for twenty years. She was a committed member of Mountain View Baptist Church in Hamptonville and attended regularly until her health began to fail recently.  She served previously as the church clerk, taught the first and second grade children’s Sunday School class for several years, was a member of the WMU (Women’s Missionary Union), dedicated preschool and nursery worker on Wednesday nights, and loved her adult Sunday School class after she “retired” from teaching.  She also volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity store and delivered Meals on Wheels in Yadkin County on Tuesday mornings for several years.  She was a very talented seamstress, an excellent cook and loved gardening and canning.  Bill and her Dobson family referred to her as “Pene,” but her favorite name was “Grandma” to Jacob and Rebecca and she retired so she could babysit and spend time with them. In addition to her parents and her husband, Bill, who passed away on May 1, 2014, she was preceded in death by a sister, Maxine Dockery and two brothers, Leroy and Farrell Snow. She is survived by her two sons and daughters-in-law, Greg and Ava Riley and Joel and Trish Riley of Hamptonville; her grandson, Jacob Riley of Hamptonville and fiancé Kassie Bennett; her granddaughter, Rebecca Riley Floyd and husband Stuart of Tigerville, SC; two sisters-in-laws, Estelle Snow and Jackie Snow and several nieces, nephews and grand-nieces and nephews whom she loved dearly. She also befriended Greg and Angela Nichols from Alabama when they moved to Yadkinville as a young couple and took them under her wing.  She thought of them and their six children, Emory and wife Jane, Baylor, Kendall, Carey, Rice and Campbell, as family and loved them very much. She has been reunited with her husband and family who passed away before her and is at rest in heaven now with Jesus where she will remain for eternity. The family will receive friends on Monday, April 22, 2019 from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., prior to the service, at Mountain View Baptist Church in Hamptonville and the funeral will be at 3:00 p.m. by the Rev. Tim Tucker. Burial will be in the church cemetery.  The family respectfully requests no flowers and memorials may be made to the NC Baptist Children’s Home, PO Box 338, Thomasville, NC  27360; St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105; or the Joan & Howard Woltz Hospice Home, 945 Zephyr Road, Dobson, NC  27017. The family would like to thank the friends, neighbors and church members for their prayers, cards, visits, calls, food and the other expressions of love, and a sincere thank you to Dr. Renee Tegeler, Dr. David Bohle, and staff of Winston-Salem Healthcare for the excellent and compassionate care provided to Mrs. Riley over the past several years and more recently to the Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care staff members. Gentry Family Funeral Service in Yadkinville is serving the Riley family.  Online condolences can be made at www.gentryfuneralservice.com.