Pamela G. Riley

Pamela Gene Trotter was born in Queens, New York, on February 22, 1952, to Theodore and Joan Trotter of 88-15 Ashford Street, Queens Village.  She attended Queens College, graduating in 1974 with a B.A. degree in Education.  While there she met William Riley, who was then a Midshipman at the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York; both were active in Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.  They married in 1974, and Pam accompanied Bill to various duty stations in the U. S. Coast Guard, including Norfolk, Cleveland, New York, Washington, and New Orleans.  In Cleveland, Pam taught at the Alexander Graham Bell School for the Deaf, and earned a Master of Education degree at John Carroll University in 1979.  In the 1980s, Bill and Pam began performing as Christian entertainers.  Pam wrote ventriloquist scripts for Bill and developed her own persona as Evangeline the Clown.  The couple were active in the Fellowship of Christian Magicians.  After Bill retired from the Coast Guard in 1992, the couple returned to Bowie, Maryland, and Pam taught at various Christian schools.  Prior to her illness she was teaching at Elvaton Christian Academy in Millersville, Maryland.  She used her hobby of mineral collecting to teach geology.  In 2007, the couple moved from Bowie to Pasadena, Maryland, to be closer to both their jobs.  However, they remained members of the Church of the Redeemer (Evangelical Covenant) in Bowie.  Pam taught a special needs Sunday school class at the church.  Pam had jokingly set a goal to attempt every art and craft known to mankind in her lifetime, and she made quite a dent in the list.  While living in Slidell, Louisiana, in 1990, she made a larger-than-king-size quilt which was entered in the Coast Guard Bicentennial Quilt Contest in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  As members of the Society for Creative Anachronism and of the Longship Company Ltd., Pam demonstrated various period arts and crafts at medieval and Viking re-enactment events, while Bill participated in his persona as an Irish shipwright.  Both were also active in the Coast Guard Auxiliary.  Pam used her teaching skills in boating safety education, her clown skills in her teaching career, and her teaching skills in her clown performances.  Pam is survived by her husband, Bill; her mother, Joan; two brothers, Guy and Lee; two nephews, Guy and Adam; and three nieces, Maggie, Abby, and Sophie.