Lyla Jean Wiley

Our Mom, Lyla Jean Wiley, was ushered into the presence of God on Sunday morning the 24th of October 2021. She was greeted by friends and family that had gone on before including her beloved Paul, sixty-nine years married before his passing in 2017.

She was born 13 March 1928 to Edgar Ray and Marjorie King in Tustin, CA. She always said she was a princess because her daddy was a King. She was the oldest of five girls and had a lot of responsibility from an early age. She was ironing clothes by age thirteen to bring money into the family coffer. Her family did not feel the effects of the Great Depres-sion as much as others because they raised cows, goats, and rabbits, grew vegetables, and had oranges from the groves where her father worked.

She met our dad at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, and they were married six months later. She loved the Lord and was a Proverbs 31 woman, a satisfied and productive stay-at-home Mom and frugal home economist. Mom wrote that her proudest career accomplishment was “raising four responsible adult children who are caring and loving”. Their legacy includes Janice (Howard) Swing, Jolene (Gerard) Anderson, Mitchell (Terri) Wiley, and Jeanette (Clarke) Prescott.

She was blessed to meet and be a part of five generations. There are ten grandchildren, twenty-one great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson. The first-born grandson, Dad’s namesake, Paul Swing, passed away in an accident in 2020. She is also survived by three of her sisters, Marge, Joyce, and Claudia.

Mom did not finish her education until all the children were established in high school. Dad broke the news to us by saying we would have to do more chores so she would have study time. She graduated from University of California, Riverside in 1972 with a degree in English history. Reading was extremely important to her, and she volunteered at Washington Elementary school in Riverside to tutor children that had difficulty. She and Dad were team teachers at Riverside First Baptist third grade Sunday School because in that grade the children were issued a Bible and she wanted to help them learn their way around the Word and read for understanding.

Mom was a Bible Study Fellowship discussion leader for several years. When Dad retired, they traveled in their motorhome with Mobile Missionary Assistance Program (MMAP) around the country doing work projects at Christian schools, camps, and churches.

There will be a Celebration of Life at the Zion Reformed Church in Ripon CA on 30 December 2021. The inurnment will be at the Riverside National Cemetery on 3 January 2022, with a Memorial Service and reception at the Church on the Hill (formerly 1st Baptist Church) in Riverside that afternoon.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.LakewoodHughson.com for the Wiley family.