Jessie B. Riley

Jessie B. Riley left her courageous battle with Alzheimer’s behind and entered into eternal life on August 2, 2021. If you hear a rumbling in the sky over the next few days good chances are it’s her, clipboard in hand, checking all the processes and procedures at the pearly gates. She was predeceased by her granddaughter, Megan Dunham and son in law Timothy Warfle. She is survived by her three daughters, Bridget Gary, Kimberly Dunham-Warfle, Caroline Bonanno; grandchildren - Daniel Dunham (Karen), Samantha Shaheen, Patrick Bonanno, and Rachel Warfle, and her great-granddaughters, Emma and Molly Dunham. Also surviving Jessie is her niece, Nancy Gartley, and nephews; James Gartley Jr. and John Gartley (Deb), as well as her former husband, James W. Riley. Jessie was raised in Kingston and Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Millersville Teachers College with a BS in secondary education. She initially taught English in the high school setting but put teaching aside to start her family. After re-entering the work force as a Tupperware, then Princess House hostess, where she gained experience in public speaking, she soon followed her wish to become a nurse. She graduated from Binghamton General School of Nursing in 1978 with honors. She started work in the Emergency Room at Binghamton General Hospital, soon advancing to Night Supervisor at BGH as well. She eventually moved into the Quality Assurance department for UHS and became interested in the work which allowed her to review medical cases to help prevent errors and issues that can sometimes be a part of patient care in the medical environment. She acquired her Quality Assurance Professional in Health Care certification while working there. In 1991, Jessie pursued her desire to travel and went to work for the King Abdulazziz Armed Forces Hospital in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia as Director of Quality Assurance. She worked there for 10 years, living and working in an international community where she made many friends from around the world. She was highly regarded in the field of Quality Assurance and spoke regularly at health care symposiums globally while making an impact on the quality of care in that area of the world. She was also instrumental in coordinating care efforts for US military injured from missile attacks during Operation Desert Storm while in Saudi. She returned to the US in 2001, and held several Director of Quality/Nursing positions around the United States, from hospitals to nursing homes. Jessie loved to travel throughout her life, and her daughters were many times her traveling companions. Whether to local places of interest or to European cities, she was always interested in learning about new places and peoples, their foods and customs… curry in England, mussels in Belgium, haggis in Scotland, and local delicacies in Germany, France and the Middle East. Her love of genealogy had her traveling through much of Pennsylvania and doing hours of research to establish her heritage and ours. She loved animals of all kinds (except those pesky chipmunks and, of course, snakes), and especially loved to read anything and everything from newspapers to bestsellers to history and beyond. She instilled a love of reading in her children, and was ever ready to go to libraries near and far to pick up a favorite book to read from her latest reading list. You could find her at the Fenton Free Library weekly, picking up books and chatting up the ladies there for good conversation she would say. She was tenacious (so much nicer of a word than stubborn), compassionate when there was cause to be, always ready to lend helpful “advice”, highly educated, felt “manners made a person nice to know” and lived by that rule, she had a great sense of humor often delivered with a heaping helping of sarcasm, and had awesome one-liners that she shared with friends and family alike. She was fun, adventurous, sassy and strong, and always inquisitive. She was known in the community as one of the people who would bring the bank teller a box of Gertrude Hawks’s chocolates or a box of donuts to the local mechanic just because she could, and she could carry on a conversation with strangers on any given subject. She was definitely a force to be reckoned with and when you saw the “one raised eyebrow look” things were going to get real. She will be missed, but forever remembered. A special thank you to the staff on West Wing at Willow Point for their daily care of Jessie, most especially Ashley Hammond, PA who treated her medically but also with compassion, friendship and care that we all came to appreciate greatly. The family will receive friends from 5:00 until 7:00 pm on Thursday, August 5, 2021 at the DeMunn Funeral Home, 36 Conklin Avenue, Binghamton. Interment will be private in Dunmore Cemetery, Scranton, Pennsylvania. In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to the Broome County Humane Society, 167 Conklin Avenue, Binghamton, NY 13903 or your local library. To forward condolences please visit www.demunn.com.