Joanne Marie Bigley-Riley-Thomas, 92, passed away peacefully on October 17, 2026, at the Valley Manor Care Center in Montrose, Colorado.

She was born on July 16, 1934, in Battle Creek, Michigan, to Thomas Abner Bigley and Ethel May Wright. In 1952, Joanne enlisted in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. Assigned to the medical unit at Hill Air Force Base in Utah as a medical assistant and clerk, she and her fellow personnel cared for wounded soldiers and provided medical care for the airmen assigned to the base.

Following her military service, she married Jack Edwin Riley on October 2, 1953, in Ogden, Utah, and resided in Utah for over forty years, where they raised their six children. During this chapter of her life, Joanne joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having been baptized on April 13, 1955, and later sealed to her family in the Manti Temple on July 16, 1960. Throughout her life, she maintained a private, enduring belief and faith in God.

Joanne was an intelligent, beautiful, and hardworking woman who went on to pursue her education at the St. Mark’s-Westminster School of Nursing in Salt Lake City, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in the mid-1970s. As a registered nurse, she served her community in a wide variety of clinical roles, notably working for several years as a civil service charge nurse at the Tooele Army Depot Medical Clinic in Tooele, Utah.

Following the end of her first marriage in the early 1980s, she married Roger Thomas on May 20, 1985, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and relocated to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where she continued her nursing career in a variety of capacities until her retirement in the late 1990s. She remained a resident of Glenwood Springs until moving to Montrose, Colorado, where in her final years, as her health declined, she was cared for by the kind staff at the Valley Manor Care Center in Montrose.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Ethel May Wright and Thomas Abner Bigler; her first husband, Jack Edwin Riley; her siblings Dorothy Louise Bigley-Jarvis, Donna May Bigley-Banks, and David Thomas Bigley; and her half-sisters Judith Marlee Banks-Warren, and Judith Kay Bigley-Duff.

She is survived by her husband, Roger Thomas; her half-sister Susan Kay Banks-Carnell-Baxter, her six children: David Lee Riley [Vonnelle], Larry Edwin Riley [Colleen], Jeffrey Thomas Riley, Caryl Marie Riley-McCormick [Brent], Lynda May Riley-Drake [Stephen], and Launi Riley-Anderson; as well as 17 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

Cremation has taken place. A graveside committal service and interment of her ashes will be held at 10:00 AM on April 16, 2027, at Valley View Memorial Park, 4335 West 4100 South, West Valley City, Utah. A private family gathering will follow the service.