Obituaries: Richard Briley III, 1963, Winn Parish, La. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: December 22, 1963, Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Richard Briley, Local Writer, Dies At 73 Richard Briley III, newspaperman and writer who liked to describe the excitement in life, died Sunday following surgery two weeks ago for stomach cancer. In his 73 years, Briley learned a lot about people and once commented he believed in writing what people wanted to read. Recently, he spent enormous amounts of time preparing a volume in which he listed 12,000 tombstone inscriptions taken from Winn cemeteries. The book will yet be published. This work, he said, was his response to public interest in genealogical matters. Briley was once a reporter on Chicago and Detroit newspapers. He turned to freelancing for newspapers and magazines. While in Detroit and Chicago, he wrote under the Federal Writers Program and was chief writer in preparing a guide for the State of Michigan. He also was a radio script writer there. He was drafted in World War II defense work writing technical specifications. Later in Denver, Colorado, he was editor of Western Voice, a religious weekly. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, he wrote radio scripts for Evangelist Billy James Hargis and was a syndicated contributor to the Salvation Army Magazine "Warcry". He was amused with politics and even ghost wrote speeches for campaigners. His "Death of the Kingfish" paperback book dealt with the end of Huey Long. In recent years, Briley turned to the historical lore of Central Louisiana. First off, he turned out a paperback guide of Central Louisiana and then dug into the legends and facts of the West and Kimbrell Clan, a band accused of outlawism during Reconstruction days. His account of their activities were published in a paperback called "The Nightriders". On a pine tree in Atlanta, Briley nailed a board proclaiming that it was near the spot where John West's gang was rounded up and killed on order of President U. S. Grant. Briley lived the past few years with his wife at 418 West Main Street, Winnfield. He displayed an extreme interest in community churches, their people, and their histories. Hardly a church or family reunion, singing convention, or homecoming came without his presence. Generally he brought back film and stories for the papers. His activities and looks deceived his age. Most people who saw him daily thought he was about 10 to 15 years younger than his 73 years. Quick witted, he was jovial to the end. His knack for sizing up situations large and small spiced a personality that made friends easily. He knew what made life tick. Tuesday morning, Briley was buried at Couley Church, 17 miles west of Winnfield in the heart of the country he loved and not far from his boyhood home. His survivors include his wife, Mrs. Ida Martin Briley; two sisters, Mrs. W. P. Luther, Montgomery, and Mrs. Odes Fletcher, Detroit; four nieces and nephews. Funeral services were held in the Laurel Heights Baptist Church with the Rev. C. C. Martin and Rev. Clarence Brooks officiating. Burial under the direction of Southern Funeral Home was in Couley Cemetery. Serving as pallbearers were Asa Martin, Bryan Kelley, Donald Kelley, Bill Berry, Dick Watts, Wayne Luther. Honorary pallbearers were Ben Price, H. B. Bozeman, Lloyd Harrison, P. C. Lang, and Ben Peters. Tribute To Richard Briley, Newspaper Man by Eck W. Bozeman Newspapermen are born, not made. It is a rare ability and instinct bred into a person and if it is not real, the imposters are found wanting and soon fall by the wayside. A good newspaperman never gives up in his search for that which makes for good reading. It has to be factual. It must hold the reader's interest. It is a job never finished. Richard Briley III was a true newspaperman. His long tenure with big newspapers in Detroit and Chicago and other places attest to this fact. His desire to get to the true facts of a story was never ending. That was what brought him back to Winn and Grant Parishes. He smelled the air and detected the fact that several big stories never yet told lie in these pine hills of these two parishes. He was not to be content with hearsay. He dug out from the past some of the most startling historical and factual stories of events that happened a century ago and put them in writing for history lovers hence not yet born to read and now what actually happened here in perhaps the most fanatic area of Louisiana and the entire southland. Richard Briley III would be seen walking the streets of Winnfield and Montgomery with his trusted camera swung over his shoulder always on the lookout for material for a most interesting article. He traveled over these two parishes collecting pictures and bits of information for the many books and articles that he wrote after returning to his native state of Louisiana. He covered family reunions, church gatherings, funerals and weddings. He was perhaps the best informed person regarding every inch of Winn and Grant Parishes. He knew almost every family, white and colored of both parishes. He was in the process of publishing a cemetery directory listing every cemetery in Winn Parish and who was buried in each cemetery. He was interested in the historical background as well as the political part that Winn Parish has played in recent years here in Louisiana politics. I came to know and respect Richard Briley as a newspaperman and a man interested in preserving every word, every historic happening and everything that had a significant value to our heritage. His father was a prominent building contractor here in Winnfield around the turn of the century. It was only natural that he felt in his heart that the old and the new should be blended together. He had a touch of romantic writing in his style as evidenced in his "BRILEY'S CENLA GUIDE" in which he published "THE MONTGOMERY STORY." He once told me that the biggest mistake that was ever made in Grant Parish was when General Thomas S. Woodward changed the name from the French name of Bon Dieu Falls and renamed it Montgomery, after his beloved Montgomery, Alabama. As he said, "Bon Dieu Falls has a romantic sound and with the tourist looking for somewhere and someplace to go, where else can a person find a more beautiful story that the story of the beautiful Indian maiden, Creola, and her love for Gen. Woodward." Yes, Winn and Grant Parishes have lost a valuable asset in the person of Richard Briley III. Yet we should consider ourselves as being lucky to have had him with us these past few years. He will be missed by those who knew him but like all good authors and newspapermen, his work will live on and on.