Sistie Virginia Riley

Sistie Virginia Givens Riley was born July 6, 1932 on the family farm five miles west of Mangum, Oklahoma. She was the youngest of five children. Sistie graduated from Mangum High School in 1950. As a nine-year-old girl, Sistie trusted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior and was baptized at the First Baptist Church where she faithfully attended.

Education was valued in the Givens family. All of Sistie's family had graduated from Oklahoma A&M. During her senior year of college the name was changed to Oklahoma State University. She graduated in 1954 with a degree in Home Economics.

As a fourteen-year-old girl, Sistie sensed God was calling her to be a missionary. She solidified that call as a college student while on a summer mission trip to Jamaica. After college, Sistie worked for two years as the Tulsa County Assistant Home Demonstration Agent. During that time she saved enough money to move to Ft. Worth, TX and earn a Master of Religious Education Degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

In 1958 Sistie was appointed by the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) of the Southern Baptist Convention to serve in Brazil. Most of her time in Brazil was located 500 miles south of Rio in Curitiba. Over the years, she had many responsibilities. She was in charge of a dispensary. The citizens were very poor and she supplied powdered milk for babies. This portion of her job included traveling the Penetration Road through the Amazon jungle. Other duties put her in charge of an orphanage. She also helped start Baptist churches in her region. After serving as a missionary for 36 years, Sistie retired to Stillwater, OK.

In June of 2007 Sistie married Duane Riley. They made their home in Stillwater, Altus, then, finally, in Oklahoma City.

Sistie was preceded in death by her parents: David Oscar Givens and Virginia Talley Givens; three brothers: Dodson Givens, Jack Givens and Kenneth Givens; and one sister: Elizabeth Shirley.

She is survived by her husband: Duane Riley of Oklahoma City; four nieces: Sarah Givens Yauk of Buffalo, OK; Susan Givens of Norman, OK; Linda Givens Ortega of Tulsa, OK; Ann Givens Sinclair of Pennsylvania; and one nephew: Greg Givens of Pennsylvania.