Saturday, September 13, 2014 Shelley Riley Moore, former first lady of West Virginia, dies By David Gutman, Staff writer Sunday Gazette-Mail file photo Shelley Riley Moore, seen here in 1985, was the longest-serving first lady in West Virginia history. She died Saturday at 88. Shelley Riley Moore, who served as first lady of West Virginia for 12 years, longer than anyone else in the state’s history, died Saturday morning. She was 88. The death was announced by her family. Moore was married to former Gov. Arch Moore for 65 years. She was the mother of Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who has represented West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House for the past 13 years. Capito is running for the U.S. Senate. Moore was the first lady of West Virginia from 1969 to 1977 and from 1985 to 1989. Arch Moore’s tenure as governor — he remains the state’s only three-term governor — was notable for an unprecedented period of road building, strides in public education and welfare and mental-health programs. As first lady, Shelley Moore focused on libraries, education and opening up the Governor’s Mansion to the public. In 1985, she founded the West Virginia Mansion Preservation Foundation, to raise funds to redecorate and preserve the mansion. She was with her husband through 26 elections, according to Gazette-Mail archives, beginning with the state House of Delegates in 1954, seven runs for Congress, two unsuccessful runs for governor, an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate and three successful runs for governor. “I knew, if I married Arch, our life would never be a private one,” Moore told the Gazette-Mail in 1988. “But I’m part of a team with the governor.” Two years after his final campaign, Moore pleaded guilty to five felony charges, including extortion, tax evasion and accepting illegal campaign contributions. He was sentenced to six years in federal prison “After a final, emotional goodbye, Harry [Moore, Arch’s brother] then drove the former First Lady to her brother’s home in Georgia,” Brad Crouser wrote in his biography, “Arch: The Life of Governor Arch A. Moore Jr.” “At that point, Mrs. Moore dropped the brave face she’d maintained for her husband’s sake. ‘She cried almost all the way over there,’ recalled Harry Moore.” Arch Moore maintained his innocence and repeatedly tried to withdraw his guilty plea and appeal his sentence. Upon his release, after serving nearly three years, he returned to his wife and their home in Glen Dale. “Our mother was a wonderful, warm and loving person,” the Moore family said in a statement. “Mom matched an uplifting sense of humor with a genuine ability to listen and connect, traits that made everyone around her know they mattered. She was an ardent fan of West Virginia University, especially its marching band, the Pride of West Virginia. She was deeply honored to serve as first lady of West Virginia for 12 years.” Sadie Shelley Riley was born in 1926 in Miami, Florida. Her first name was dropped when she began school, according to Crouser’s biography. Her father, who was in the tailoring business, moved the family 26 times over the years, stopping for five years in Morgantown, before settling in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, according to the biography. She would return to Morgantown in 1944 to attend WVU. She pledged a sorority and became president of the Women’s Recreation Association, according to the biography. Two years after arriving on campus, she went on a double date — to the movies and, afterward, to Comuntzi’s Restaurant, on High Street, for a Coke. Her date was a boy named Zach, but she soon found herself more interested in her friend’s date, a young student named Arch Moore. “Hands off, I want this one,” Shelley told her friend. The two graduated in 1948 — she majored in education — and married in 1949, in Uniontown. “Both of my parents said those were the best four years of their lives,” Shelley Moore Capito told her father’s biographer. News of Moore’s death brought a wave of sympathetic statements from West Virginia’s political elite. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, in a statement, said Shelley Moore “represented West Virginia with grace and class throughout her life.” “She was an amazing woman who represented the people of West Virginia with grace and dignity as first lady, but whose love and tenderness as a mother and friend touched so many,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said in a statement. Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, who is Capito’s Democratic opponent in the race for U.S. Senate, said in a statement that her thoughts were with the congresswoman and her family. “Our politics may differ, but we are all West Virginians, and we come together and comfort each other in times like these,” Tennant said. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said, “Shelley Moore was a true first lady of this great state in every way.” Moore is survived by her husband, children Arch A. Moore III, Shelley Moore Capito and Lucy Moore Durbin, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 02:16:03 +0000
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