RILING, Mildred E.

Mildred Elizabeth Riling, 101 Memorial service for Mildred Elizabeth Riling, 101, of Lawton, will be at 2:00 p.m. Thursday at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church with Rev. William B. Carlin II, pastor, officiating. Ms. Riling died on Feb. 25, 2008, in Lawton. She was born April 10, 1906 in Chicopee, Kansas, to Albert Ernest Riling and Josphine (Hudson) Riling. She received her B.A. Degree from Oklahoma College for Women in 1925, her M.A. from The University of Oklahoma in 1926 and did graduate work at The University of Minnesota from 1938 through 1940. She was Professor of English Literature and Humanities at Southeastern State College in Durant from 1927 to 1971 except for a leave of absence during World War II when she served as a W.A.A.C, and then a W.A.C. in the First Army as a Weather Observer. Her weather data was used to determine an optimum time for the invasion of Japan, which, due to the atomic bomb never had to occur. She earned a Good Conduct Medal and was discharged on September 23, 1945. She had numerous publications and wrote a government grant to study children's language. The research from this grant compared the language children use with the language in their textbooks and she wrote a book giving the results of this research. She wrote another government grant for Teachers Teaching Teachers which was awarded to Southeastern. Mildred was a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, The Oklahoma Council of Teachers of English, The Modern Language Association and Sigma Tau Delta Honor Society. She was also a member and a sponsor of Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority at Southeastern for many years. After retirement, she took art and learned to throw pots. She also became active in genealogy and became a member of The Colonial Dames of the XVII Century and The Daughters of The American Revolution. She served as Oklahoma State Registrar of The Colonial Dames and wrote extensively for The Hudson Association Journal. She loved to travel and went around the world in 1962. She also liked to garden and to play bridge. She has lived at The Village on Lee for the last ten years after she lost her eye sight. She is survived by a sister, Dr. Josephine Raburn and her husband, Winston of Lawton, four nieces and two nephews. She is preceded in death by two brothers, Hubert and Lester Riling and one sister, Lela Riling Steen. Lawton Ritter Gray Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.