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INTERVIEW WITH MISS RILEY
By Melinda Alumbaugh
Stigler High School
March 9, 1984
Article from Newspaper:
She's Still Working at Stigler
Teacher Wouldn't Trade Occupations
STIGLER--"I never met a student I didn't like," said longtime Stigler teacher Lilian Riley.
She taught English 44 years here before "retiring" in 1966.
Now she teaches some of the ones who dropped out and some of their children. She teaches adult education classes at night
and up to 60 hours of substitute classes.
"I'd study more and work more but I wouldn't change occupations," she said, if she had it to do over again.
"I don't think I could have done anything else. It's just rewarding, that's all."
She lives across the street from the school and has for a long time. The school has changed buildings on the site. Her
house is the same.
A stern countenance may have kept students in line, but she always cared about them, she said.
And she always tried to commend them for doing the right things, whether in their studies or in their behavior.
She started teaching after finishing high school in 1921, a couple of years after her family moved from Warner. One rule
she's followed ever since then was to be honest with the students. "Students can see through you," she said, "they
respect honesty. If I don't know the answer, I tell them, I can find out for them."
A teacher training class she took her senior year in high school was taught by a man who emphasized that principle, she
said. It was a comfortable rule, since her parents had instilled the idea of integrity in their offspring.
Later she completed a bachelor's degree at Northeastern Oklahoma State University, Tahlequah, and a master's degree at
the University of Oklahoma.
Students haven't changed much in 57 years, she said, although demands upon their time have.
"Students know more today," she said. Commonplace knowledge was uncommon a half century ago. "When I
was growing up I never went to a restaurant," she said.
Teen-agers didn't have cars, motorcycles and substantial allowances.
Modern teen-agers know about going to restaurants and handling money and about handling a wider variety of social situations.
But pressures are greater. "We've made them nervous wrecks," she said. The modern teen-ager in Stigler has
more worries. He may, on the average, be more concerned with education.
It's thought to be more important now.
The same is true for adults.
"Twenty or thirty years ago education was not looked upon as important." Adults see it as more important, now.
Adults in her night classes may want education in order to help their children.
Many may feel they need a high school diploma in order to get a decent job. "Most really want to get a better job."
Oldest of her students is a woman, 78, who may get her diploma this year.
Some have children in classes where she substitute teaches. "They (the children) let me know they're thrilled to
death to have their parents in school."
INTERVIEW WITH MISS LILIAN RILEY
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Miss Riley, where were you born?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Altus, Arkansas.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Where did you attend high school?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Stigler, I attended my freshman and sophomore year at Warner, and my junior and senior year at Stigler.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Where did you go to college?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Northeastern Oklahoma State University, Tahlequah, and a master's degree at the University of Oklahoma.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How many years did you attend college?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: I just went in the summertime. It covered a period of eight years.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Where were you raised?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Well, I lived in Arkansas, then we moved to Vian, and lived there three years, and lived a year at
Warner, and the rest of the time at Stigler.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: When did you start teaching?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: 1922.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Where did you first start teaching?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: It was really at Kinta, but I never even say anything about it because it was just my first year,
but every other year in Stigler, so I just say Stigler.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How many years have you taught school?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Forty-four years.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Were you ever married?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How many years ago were you married?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Fifty-four years ago.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What were your parents' occupations?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: My mother was just a housekeeper, and my father had various occupations like farming mostly.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Have you always lived in Stigler?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes, since 1919.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What are your favorite subjects to teach?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: English.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How did you punish your students when they did something wrong?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Just scolded.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What was the high school like when you first started teaching?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Well, I started in the grades, and then junior high and senior. Ask me that question again?
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Describe the school?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: It was more strict than it is now and we didn't have as many things to do as we have now, but we had
practically the same except students weren't allowed to do the things they are now. School was more or less the center of
entertainment.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How did you and your family make it during the depression?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Well, I taught school so it was not bad. We really didn't suffer like other people, of course we
couldn't have certain foods except so much food was rationed. My father was working in a store so it really didn't affect
me that much.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What are your hobbies and interests?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: China painting, and working in the yard.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you enjoy reading the Bible?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes, I teach an adult Sunday School class, I call them the little old ladies, but I am older than
most of them.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What was your entertainment when you were younger?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Well, we went to the picture show, and we went to the drugstore, see you drive up and down the street,
we didn't have cars.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What was your transportation when you were younger?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Walking, we had a car in the early twenties, but after that we didn't.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How far did you have to walk to school?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Across the street. I never had to walk very far of course when I started teaching I had to walk to
high school, but we lived within a block to the high school.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Are there any things that you would like to tell me that are interesting or historical?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: No, I am not any historical thing.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Did anything interesting happen to you while you were teaching?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Oh, I loved my students.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you enjoy teaching?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes, I do, I still do.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How many generations have you taught?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Well, you could say at least three generations.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Did you ever have any children?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: No.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Who are your best friends now?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Oh, I couldn't really say. I just consider every one that I associate with good friends. You don't
have as many. The older you get the fewer friends you have, but for my age, I have a lot of friends.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How much do you substitute teach?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: If I substitute English I usually try to teach, unless they have something to do, otherwise I try
to explain to the students if they want to know.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Are you tutoring anyone right now?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: No.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What church do you attend?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: First Christian.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you still enjoy teaching?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Well yes, it is a way of life. To some people it wouldn't. I can do it or leave it, it doesn't make
any difference. If they call me fine, or if they don't, fine.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you enjoy TV?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Really I don't, I just never have enjoyed just sitting down and watching a program, I do occasionally--not
like other people. I prefer sports on TV more than I do the shows. I have a combination record player and radio.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you listen to the radio?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: If I want to find out about a ballgame coming that hasn't been broadcasted.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you ever attend school functions any more?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Not now, I don't, but used to we had to.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you have any animals?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes I have two dogs.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What are their names?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Buffy, and Stormy.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you sell any of your china in the arts and crafts festival?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Well, I didn't this past year because I broke my arm back in August and so I didn't have time to do
any thing this past year. But I have the last three years.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What was the household like when you were young?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Well, we didn't have an air-conditioner, and we didn't have a bathroom, we had to go outside. We
didn't have electric fans of any sort. And you didn't have central heat. When I was born we had a wood stove and a fireplace.
You had face-board fans. Oil lamps.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Did you ever ride in a horse and buggy?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes, and a wagon.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Did you ever ride to town on a horse?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: No, I road to town in a buggy.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What did Stigler consist of when you lived?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: There were three banks, and all of the buildings that are there now, except the ones that burned.
Now they have a new court house. Now they have a new east plaza, and new Stop to Shops.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: When and where did you eat out when you were little?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: You ate at the hotel when you went out to eat in Stigler. There were two hotels in Stigler.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How many brothers and sisters do you have?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: One brother, and one sister.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Are they still living today?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: No, they passed away, I am the only member of my family left. See, I have to have friends.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What was the population when you first lived in Stigler?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Well, there wasn't any addition where the Rose's live, and there wasn't any houses on the other side
of the cemetery, and where the new high school is was all a nursery, and the nursery came down to the nursery, and the Rushwood
addition was just pasture.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How long have you lived in the house that you're living in now?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Forty-nine years.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Have you been the only one that has ever lived in this house?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: No, well my sister and brother were out when we first moved, just my mother and father.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What made your parents decide to move to Stigler from Arkansas?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: There was more opportunity.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you remember moving to Stigler?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes, we came to Stigler in a Pilot. And then we finally had a Ford.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What was the main type of transportation?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Train, that was the way of travel.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: How did you get to college?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: By train.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Did you stay in a dorm when you went to college?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Oh, no, there wasn't such a thing as a dormitory at Tahlequah. We stayed in private homes with other
people. There were sixteen of us girls in one home. There were a few in 1920-21 but the average person didn't have one?
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you remember who you stayed with in a private home?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes, Mrs. Richards.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What was OU like when you attended?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Oh, it was great. They were really advanced.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Did you pay for all of your education?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes, every bit of it. I worked in the winter, and went to school in the summer time.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What did you work for to pay for your school?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: I taught school in the winter, and went to school in the summer. Back then you didn't have to have
a degree to teach school. You just filled out an application, just like you do now.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: In high school what kind of activities were you in?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Basketball.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What was basketball like then?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: We played on three courts, we had two ends and one in the middle.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: What position did you play in basketball?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Guard.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: (Unknown question)
MISS LILIAN RILEY: At the first prom we ever had I was the sponsor? We did folk dancing. Miller boy and skip to my
Lou. Every one liked to play Miller boy because you could put your arm around the girl. The rock gym was where we had the
folk dancing. The old high school had three stories. The rock gym was a real nice gym at one time.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Were you sad when the old high school burned?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: Yes, I was, but I was worse about the other. I was the sponsor of the junior and senior plays. I
sponsored the girl's basketball team for six years. I sponsored Hilma Sparks on the basketball team. I sponsored Carolyn
Benham in a play. I think the new high school is very nice.
MELINDA ALUMBAUGH: Do you like to wear high heels?
MISS LILIAN RILEY: I like pretty heels, I love to wear high heels. I could climb a mountain in high heels, just as I
could in flat.
(This concludes the interview with Miss Lilian Riley by Melinda Alumbaugh.)
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