US Congressman, Educator, Entrepreneur. He was a United States Representative from the State of South Carolina. He was born to Reverend John Jacob Riley (1869-1895), and his wife Caroline Mary "Daisy" Salley Riley (1873-1953), on a farm near Orangeburg, South Carolina, on February 1, 1895. He was educated locally and attended the common public schools in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, and attended and graduated from the prestigious Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1915. He then worked as a teacher in the Orangeburg, South Carolina, City Schools from 1915 to 1917, and at Clemson Agricultural and Mechanical College in Clemson, North Carolina, in 1917, and again in 1918. During World War II, he served his country with the rank of Seaman Second Class and as a Yeoman Third Class in the United States Navy in 1918 and again in 1919. He also engaged in business pursuits including real estate and insurance in Sumter, North Carolina, from 1919 to 1945. He also served as a secretary of a building and loan association from 1923 to 1945. During this time, he also took an interest in politics and served as a Delegate to several South Carolina State Conventions from 1928 to 1944. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected to succeed the outgoing United States Representative Willa Lybrand Fulmer (1884-1968), on January 3, 1945. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served South Carolina's 2nd District (Seventy-Ninth Congress and Eightieth Congress), in the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 1945, to January 3, 1949. He was an unsuccessful Candidate for renomination in 1948. Following his first term in the United States Congress, he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative Hugo Sheridan Sims Jr. (1921-2004), on January 3, 1949. He won the nomination in 1950 and was elected to succeed the outgoing United States Representative Hugo Sheridan Sims Jr. (1921-2004), who had previously succeeded. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served South Carolina's 2nd District (Eighty-Second Congress and the five succeeding Congresses including the Eighty-Third Congress, Eighty-Fourth Congress, the Eighty-Fifth Congress, the Eighty-Sixth Congress, and the Eight-Seventh Congress), serving from January 3, 1951, until his death on January 1, 1962, at the age of 66. He was originally elected in 1950, re-elected in 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958, and again in 1960. While serving in the United States Congress he was a signatory to the 1956 Southern Manifesto that opposed the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. Following his death on January 1, 1962, athe age of 66, while still in office, his seat in the United States Congress remained vacant from January 1, 1962, to April 10, 1962. A special election took place for his seat between South Carolina State Legislator Martha Elizabeth Thomas "Mattie" Fitzgerald (1894-1981), and his wife a teacher Corinne Boyd Riley (1893-1979). His wife won his seat and took over his unexpired term. After his death from a sudden heart attack at the family cottage in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, on January 1, 1962, and his funeral service at the First Presbyterian Church in Sumter, North Carolina, he was buried in Sumter Cemetery in Sumter, South Carolina. His wife Corinne passed away in Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1979, at the age of 85, and she was buried with her husband in Sumter Cemetery in Sunter, North Carolina. The couple were survived by their two children, Helen Riley Purdy (1920-1984), and Onan Beverely Riley (1924-1991).