THE UPTOWN Theater was the place to go in the '50s and '60s if you wanted to see the top rock 'n' roll and doo-wop performers of those jumpin' decades. Daisy Jane Riley was the Uptown's "gatekeeper" from 1954 to 1964, when she was nearly as well-known and popular as some of the acts. Her cousin Jimmy Merchant, one of the original members of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers ("Why Do Fools Fall In Love?), arrived to perform with his group at the Uptown in 1959, he was surprised to find her there. She was a member of New Gethsemane Baptist Church in Germantown, where she served on the senior usher board. Besides her daughter, she is survived by three sons, William E. Stewart Jr., Herman Riley Jr. and Steven Riley; four other daughters, Saundra Pace, Juanita Riley, Joyce Freeman and Denise Riley; 22 grandchildren; 40 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.
THE UPTOWN Theater was the place to go in the '50s and '60s if you wanted to see the top rock 'n' roll and doo-wop performers of those jumpin' decades. Daisy Jane Riley was the Uptown's "gatekeeper" from 1954 to 1964, when she was nearly as well-known and popular as some of the acts. Her cousin Jimmy Merchant, one of the original members of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers ("Why Do Fools Fall In Love?), arrived to perform with his group at the Uptown in 1959, he was surprised to find her there. She was a member of New Gethsemane Baptist Church in Germantown, where she served on the senior usher board. Besides her daughter, she is survived by three sons, William E. Stewart Jr., Herman Riley Jr. and Steven Riley; four other daughters, Saundra Pace, Juanita Riley, Joyce Freeman and Denise Riley; 22 grandchildren; 40 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.
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