Margaret Ellen Riney (Lyons)

Margaret Ellen ? Margaret Riney Dies; Services Scheduled

By Staff Reports Published: 4/17/1993 Last Modified: 2/27/2007 8:19 AM

BARTLESVILLE - Margaret Ellen Riney a longtime Bartlesville  resident and a retired soil and water conservationist, died  Friday. She was 95.  Rosary will be recited at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the family  residence. Mass is 2 p.m. Monday at St. John's Catholic  Church.  Riney was born in Greenville, Texas, in 1897 and moved to  Bartlesville in 1917 as an employee of the MK&T Railroad  Co. In 1923, she married A.H. Riney, who later became vice  president of engineering with Phillips Petroleum Co. He  died in 1961.  Riney began her work in soil and water conservation in 1948  after she began managing her family's farm and ranch. In  1954, she purchased a 210-acre easement and donated it to  make possible the dam and flood plain for the Double Creek  Watershed pilot project.  In 1959, she was elected supervisor of the Caney Valley  Soil and Water Conservation District, the first woman in  the United States to serve in such a capacity.  Survivors include three daughters, Janet Maloney and Joanne  Bennett of Bartlesville and Jeanne Froeb of Tulsa; ten grandchildren,  and eight great-grandchildren.  Friends are contributing to the Bartlesville School Foundation.