(1927 – 2022 April 2): Age 95
Brent Robinson Locke Riley was born in San Antonio Texas August 18, 1927 and passed away in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on April 2, 2022. Brent earned a BA degree in anthropology at UNM in 1948. That year she wed her classmate anthropologist Carroll L. Riley, to whom she remained happily married until his death in 2017. She had many accomplishments and was surrounded by dozens of family members and grand kids in later life. She was part of the last UNM field school dig at Chaco Canyon in 1949/1950? She and Cal did their honeymoon and spent several other seasons as NPS rangers at Hovenweep National Monument.
She wrote and published three children’s books, became an expert on ballads and their origins, and taught classes on the subject. She was part of a radio show, Keep the Devil Singing, in which she sang and gave histories of folk songs. She wrote an historic fiction trilogy about Coronado, among many other novels. She dabbled in painting and she loved a Guiness now and then!