Photo of Riley M. Napier

Question

My father Riley M Napier birthdate was January of 1935 approximately. Enlisted in the army in 1959 I believe however he and my mother divorced and I never knew him. I know he has passed away but if there was a picture anywhere I would really like to know what he looked like .. Thanks

Special Media Division · Answer

Thank you for posting your question on History Hub! The Still Picture Branch does not have collections of portraits/headshots, group photos, or yearbooks created during basic training. According to the military, graduates&rsquo; formal photos, both individual and group as well as yearbooks, were created by private local commercial photographers/companies and offered for sale at the time taken. Unfortunately, those items rarely became part of official military records nor were they retained by the commercial photographers responsible for shooting the photos. We do have many candid photos of U.S. military personnel but many of them do not provide identification for the people shown. 
 
 The records most related to your request is 111-PX: Index to Personalities in the U.S. Army Signal Corps Photographic Files , which is a name index organized by last name for candid photographs within our holdings. We conducted a search for Riley M. Napier, however, we unfortunately were unable to locate any images. 
 
 For more information regarding our holdings, we invite you to explore our website, www.archives.gov/.../military-personnel-photographs . Our website organizes our records by the different branches of the U.S. military, thereunder organized by time period. Please use the links on the right of the page to navigate throughout the webpage. We invite you to continue the conversation with community members on History Hub, but should you have follow up questions for the staff at Archives II, please email us at stillpix@nara.gov so that we can assist you further. We hope this assists you with your research! 
 
 Sincerely, Still Picture Branch Special Media Division (RRS) [RRSS-25-11060-SB]

Chi-chi · Answer

Riley M. Napier was born on 15 January 1936 and died on 17 March 1981. He is buried in the Pennington Gap [Virginia] Memorial Cemetery. There is no photo of him on Find a Grave. Aside from U.S. Army records which might contain photos (and to which I lack access) I would suggest getting in touch with his old high school to see if his picture is in a yearbook or other publication issued by the school. Ask if there was a student newspaper or clippings from reunions. 
 Riley must have attended Pennington High school which no longer exists. In 1989 Pennington H.S. was combined with other former high schools in Lee County, Va. The new high school is called Lee High School and is located in Jonesville, Va. There is a Google entry for the new high school with all the contact information. If the new high school doesn't have the yearbooks, ask if there is a public library or historical society in Lee County that might have kept them. 
 Good luck with your search.

Photo of Riley M. Napier

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