Obituary: Evelyn Riehl 1920 - 2014

Evelyn Dickie Riehl

Evelyn Dickie Riehl

Evelyn Dickie Riehl passed away December 29, 2014 at the age of 94 at her daughter Ann's home in Clarkdale, Arizona. Just as she always wished, she died peacefully in her sleep retaining her kindness, spirit, and keen insights to the end.

A memorial service was held for her in her Arizona church, St. Thomas Episcopal, at 2 PM on Sunday, January 18. Further memorials are being planned for her in other places where she influenced people through her long and most helpful life. There will be a celebration of her life in Colton some time this summer at Zion Episcopal Church.

Evelyn was born in White Plains, New York in 1920. She and her Bill met at Crane School of Music in Potsdam in the late 1930s, and were actively engaged in musical life in the community since. Evelyn taught music at Potsdam and Parishville High Schools, led generations of girls through scouting, and in what she called her work of a lifetime, wrote "Sunday Rock - The Folk Musical." This show was produced twice in Colton over the years and has inspired the on-going "Sunday Rock Legacy Project," a series of summertime musical/history community productions.

When Bill and Ev retired in the mid 1970s, they traveled in winters and spent summers in Colton, and after Bill's death in 1999, Evelyn continued the practice through this past summer more often than not, leading or singing in a choir or writing more music for her churches in Colton and Clarkdale.

She was a naturalist who made a point of understanding what she was looking at wherever she found herself. She could be counted on to know every tree, flower and rock in sight.

Active in her church and the local historical society and an award winning columnist for the old Courier&Freeman, she was the ultimate people person, maintaining friendships from her neighborhood to wherever she traveled in the world.

She and Bill raised three children Bill, Ann and Dave on their farm in Colton. All three children lived very rich musical lives inspired by jazzman Bill Sr. and the more classically influenced Evelyn. Bill Jr. is retired after a career in international oil and gas and lives with his wife Pat in South Carolina. Ann runs an equestrian business in Arizona. Dave's career in aerospace and computer technology ended with a premature death from pancreatic cancer in 2011 in Oregon. These three produced seven grandchildren, Alexandra and Spencer, Sarah, Aaron, and Christopher, Jocelyn and Thomas and four great grandchildren. Evelyn's brother Joe, the last of her siblings, lives with his wife Marge in Houston.

We invite stories about Bill and Ev from anyone with a story to tell.

Information provided by survivors.


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