Mildred Riley -- A Farming Prodigy

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Mildred was the oldest of six children, born in 1917 to Jesse and Bessie Riley. She began farming "...as a little tot of three, and insisted on going to the fields with her father, strapped to the top of the wheat drill to prevent her falling off.....".  By age eleven she was helping her Dad farm, "running a harrow, a roller, the manure spreader, and plows with the Fordson tractor."  Mildred also had her own 5-acre plot where she grew her championship corn.

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Mildred was crowned the Macon County Corn Show's "Corn Queen" in 1928. In 1930, she won the Illinois state championship for her yellow corn  -- and then won it again in 1932 for her white corn entry. Her high school agriculture teacher, A. E. Norton, called Mildred "..the most outstanding farm girl in the state..."