The Military Wife Also Served

She’d prayed about it, agonized over it, dreaded it. But when her husband of 60 years took his last breath Thursday morning, Emma Jane Riley wasn’t ready for it.

“It was a very great shock,” she said from the couple’s Newport Beach home overlooking Upper Newport Bay. “He was short of breath, but he didn’t want to go to the hospital. I called 911, but they couldn’t bring him back. He left us pretty quick.”

The death of Marine Corps general and former supervisor Thomas F. Riley, 85, came just after dawn. By Thursday afternoon, Emma Jane Riley had juggled dozens of phone calls, arranged her husband’s Marine Corps uniform for the funeral home, welcomed well-wishers and graciously accepted the hushed condolences of stunned and grieving friends.

Longtime family friend Tony Moiso, president and CEO of Rancho Mission Viejo, arrived to help.

“It’s been tough for her,” Moiso said. “But to be an officer’s wife, with all of those obligations, if there ever was training for something like this, she’s had it.”

Riley’s body will be flown Monday to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, his home state. Riley’s sister and brother-in-law are buried at the national military cemetery in Quantico, Va.

Emma Jane Riley said she received a call from the Marine Corps commandant’s office Thursday, which is arranging transportation to Arlington. Riley spent 30 years in the military, where he designed airfields during World War II, and they both moved to Orange County from his final post as commandant for the Marine base at Camp Pendleton.

“That’s the place for him,” she said of her husband’s burial at Arlington. “That’s the place for us both.”

As much as Riley was known in government and charitable circles, his wife has stamped a similar mark through her own philanthropy and volunteering through the Catholic Church. The two have been a frequent pair at fund-raisers and charitable events, particularly in the Newport Beach area, where they’d made their home for three decades.

In the last two years, Emma Jane Riley had taken over nursing duties for her husband, who, since 1996, was unable to walk after his foot had been amputated due to complications from diabetes. The couple used the services of a special van to get around, equipped to handle Riley’s wheelchair. He slept in a hospital bed in the bedroom, often joined by the couple’s dog and cat.

Friend Ernie Schneider, formerly the county’s chief administrative officer, said he had lunch with Riley two months ago. Schneider was among a cadre of former county employees who maintained their friendship with Riley, a man they respected and admired for his commitment and loyalty.

“I could tell he was in agony, but I swear he’d never admit it,” Schneider said. “He never complained, never had a negative thing to say.”

Emma Jane Riley said her husband had been in tremendous pain in recent months and both were suffering from the increasing stress of his mounting illnesses. Despite hopes, he was never going to walk again, she said.

“Tom and Emma Jane Riley, together, have been truly great community leaders,” said county Republican Party Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes, who met the couple when Riley was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 1974. “We pray for them both.”