Mildred Bernice McKinney Riddle, My Mom



Pin Up Girl 1956



Mildred Bernice McKinney Riddle was my beautiful Stepmother, but I called her "Mom" after I was grown.  My Grandmother didn't allow me to call her Mom or Mommy when I was small--I don't remember what I called her--I probably didn't call her anything.  My birth mother, Opal Nadine Martin Riddle, died in January of 1942, shortly after I was born--she was only 18.  My father, Elmo John Riddle, married Mildred McKinney on November 22, 1944.  She was born on January 29, 1926, so she was around 18 when they wed.  She was born and raised around Greenwood, Arkansas.  She was a very pretty girl with beautiful long strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes.  Quite a beauty!  I don't know anything about how they met or how they dated, but I know they loved each other very much, and had many good years together.  Mildred was always very slim and kept her youthful figure even until she passed away at the age of 76 on July 5, 1999, after a year-long battle with lung cancer.

Together they raised four children:  Kathyrn Bernice born on November 7, 1945; Eddie Elmo on December 1, 1947; Gary Gene on November 5, 1951, and Ricky John on November 30, 1955.  They lost two babies immediately after birth--Larry Dean on September 15, 1953, and a little girl, Brenda Gail on January 19, 1960.

Mildred was a loving and kind mother.  I adored her when I was child and was always hanging onto her when they came to visit, which vexed my grandmother greatly I believe, and I loved her even more after I was grown and had children of my own.  She was always their "Grandma" too.  I never heard her raise her voice to any of the kids or to me.  She was always so nice to me.  I wanted her to be my Mother so very badly.  She asked my Dad to please take me from his parents and let her raise me as her own, but Daddy said by the time they had married, my paternal grandparents were "too attached" to me.  

Mildred became a young widow at the young age of 41, with three boys at home to raise, when my father passed away in 1967 after a long battle of Lou Gehrig's disease.  She had never worked outside of the home and it was a very difficult couple of years for her, but she found work in Fort Smith as a motel maid.  She worked very hard to keep the house and food on the table for the two younger boys, Gary and Ricky.  My oldest brother, Eddie, had been working for some time to provide for his brothers and mom during dad's illness.  Eddie married Sharon Felkins in June 1967 shortly before Daddy died in July 1967.  Kathy was married with a small child by that time and lived in Great Bend, Kansas.  I was married and living in Tulsa, but had no children when Daddy died.



Mom, Dad & Gary at 2



Mildred did remarry some years later after she met and dated Norman Kelly around 1972.  She became Mildred McKinney Riddle Kelly, but had dropped the Riddle name by then and went byKelly.  My children remember her as "Grandma Kelly".  Honestly, I don't remember much about Norman except that he was very nice but suffered from migraine headaches.  He had been divorced--not widowed.  I remember Mom telling the kids that Norman was okay but "he's not your Dad!"  Well, that's a very true statement--no one could ever take the place of my Daddy in her heart or ours.  Mildred and Norman didn't stay married too long and they divorced.  Norman passed away a few years after Mildred did--he had remarried by that time.



Mom, Dad & Kids
A nephew is also in Mom's lap
along with Ricky.



Mom & Baby Gary 1951

I believe that my brothers and sister know that I loved "Mom" very much and so did our Daddy's brothers and sisters. They thought the world of her because Daddy loved her so much!    She would have been a wonderful mother to me, in spite of what families thought of stepmothers in those days--they weren't all like Cinderella's stepmother--some were very nice, and she was at the top of the list! 

Love, Mom & Nana