Sunday, August 26, 2007
Robert Eber Riley, 99, a driver for the old Railway Express Agency, died of bladder cancer Aug. 12 at his son's home in Friendly.
He lived in Forest Heights.
Mr. Riley worked for Railway Express for 31 years, rising from clerk to driver. He retired in 1973.
Born in Washington, he graduated from McKinley Tech High School in 1927. He worked for Goebbels Nursery in the District
during the 1930s.
He loved crabbing in the Chesapeake Bay and most recently on Antipoison Creek in White Stone, Va., with his two sons. Earlier
in his life, he crabbed on the South River and carried his burlap sack of live crabs home to Washington on trains and streetcars,
startling fellow passengers.
His wife, Ruth May Riley, died in 1995.
Survivors include two sons, Robert Franklin Riley of Fullerton, Calif., and David Paul Riley of Friendly; two stepdaughters, Ruth
Anne Hoffman of Easton, Md., and Thelma Lee Ellis of White Plains; nine grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.