Marie Louise Riggins, 103, Clarksville, died Tuesday, March 24, 2009, in Clarksville. The funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Neal-Tarpley Chapel. Burial will be in the Liberty Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2 to 5 pm Saturday and from 1 p.m. until the time of service Sunday at the funeral home. Neal-Tarpley Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. She was born November 8, 1905 in Montgomery County, the only child of the late Myrtle Riggins and Warner Wesley Riggins. In addition to her parents she was preceded in death by stepmother, Elizabeth Excell Loggins Riggins, and half brother Joel Newton Riggins. Survivors include two half brothers John Wesley Riggins, Huntsville, TN and Philip Howell Riggins (Janet), Greensboro, NC and one half sister Susan Elizabeth Riggins King (Charles), Decatur, TN and their families. After graduating from Clarksville High School, she attended Peabody College in Nashville where she received a bachelor's degree in 1929 with a double major in history and English. She taught for a semester at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, but in the fall of 1930 returned to Montgomery County where she began her first full-time teaching position at Southside. In 1953 she received a master's degree in history and government from Peabody College. She taught at Southside High School for eight years, then at Clarksville High School for thirty years. Her final three years were at Greenwood Junior High. During her forty-one years of full-time teaching and nine years of substitute teaching, she instructed more than 5,000 students in history, government and economics. After retirement in 1971 she remained active in the Retired Teachers Association. She also continued her interest in local education issues rarely missing a school board meeting where she was made an honorary board member. In 1997 the library at the new Liberty Elementary School was dedicated in her honor. In 2001 she was honored by the TEA Representative Assembly with the Friend of Education Award. Travel was of great interest to her and after retirement she traveled abroad to Russia, Europe, Egypt, China, Japan, and Malaysia. Other travel in this country have taken her to four Kentucky Derbies, the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California and a 1950 session of the United Nations Security Council in New York. She was a member and elder of the First Presbyterian Church and served as a reader on many occasions. Family and friends will serve as pallbearers. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Liberty Elementary School Library, 849 S. Liberty Church Road, Clarksville, TN 37042. Arrangements entrusted to Neal-Tarpley Funeral Home, 1510 Madison Street, Clarksville, TN 37040. Online condolences can be made at www.neal-tarpley.com