Emma Aleene (Tedder) Riggs

Emma Aleene Tedder Riggs 96, born at home on April 6, 1926, in Columbus County, NC, died March 30, 2023, at Helmwood Nursing Home in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  Her father was the late William James Tedder, and mother, the late Francis Mercer Tedder.  She was preceded in death by her brothers, Charlie Tedder and Otis Tedder of Chadbourn, North Carolina.

She graduated from Whiteville High School in 1942.  She graduated from Business School in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1943.  She was immediately recruited by the United States government to go to Washington, D.C., as a "government girl," an experience she loved.

She met her husband Ernest Jennings Riggs in 1945 in Washington, D.C.  They married and moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he served in the United States Army and she worked there for the government as an executive assistant until she retired in 1985.

She devoted herself in retirement to her garden and Severns Valley Baptist Church where she was a devoted member until her death.

Survivors are a daughter Deborah Riggs Bulley and son-in-law William, neice and nephew Gloria Motte Hill and Melvin Allen Motte.

Other family still living include David Tedder nephew of Whiteville and Judith Rutledge niece of Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina.  

Her funeral service will be at 3:00 pm Friday, April 7, 2023 at Peacock Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Gary Ledbetter officiating.  Burial will be in Peacock's Columbus Memorial Park.

Her family will receive friends 2:00 - 3:00 pm Friday April 7, 2023 at the funeral home.

Online condolences may be made at Peacockfuneralhome.net

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