Appalachian Figures Series – The Story of Della Riley of Claiborne, Kentucky
A gold badge in the Tennessee State Museum carries the story of a mountain county sheriff whose name was partly hidden by the custom of her time. The badge does not say “Della Riley.” It reads “Mrs. Frank Riley,” with “Sheriff” across the center and “Claiborne County, Tenn.” below it. Behind that name was Della Maude Buis Riley, a Claiborne County woman who stepped into one of the most public law enforcement offices in East Tennessee during the early years after women won the national right to vote. The museum dates the badge to the 1930s and identifies it as accession number 2008.59.2.1.
A Sheriff’s Badge From Claiborne County
Della Riley’s surviving badge is the strongest known piece of material evidence connected to her time as sheriff. It is not just a keepsake. It is an artifact from a period when women in public office were still treated as unusual, especially in rural law enforcement. According to the Tennessee State Museum, Della Riley was elected sheriff of Claiborne County in 1932. The museum also states that before her election, her husband Frank Riley had served three consecutive terms as sheriff, and Della had worked as a deputy during his administration.
That detail matters. Della Riley was not simply a name placed into an office because of family connection. The museum record describes her as having worked in the sheriff’s office before becoming sheriff herself. In a courthouse world where experience was often informal, local, and built through daily service, her deputy work would have made her familiar with the duties, people, and pressures of the office.
Claiborne County and the Office She Entered
Claiborne County was formed in 1801 from parts of Grainger and Hawkins Counties and named for William C. C. Claiborne, Tennessee’s first congressional representative. Tazewell was laid out as the county seat that same year. The county’s best known historic landmark is Cumberland Gap, the mountain passage near the meeting point of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia.
The sheriff’s office in Claiborne County reached back to the county’s earliest years. A local officials list names John Hunt as sheriff in 1804 and follows the office through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By the time Della Riley entered the record, the sheriff was not only an officer of law but also one of the most visible figures in county life. The same list places Frank K. Riley as sheriff from 1926 to 1932, Mrs. Frank “Della” Riley from 1932 to 1934, and Frank K. Riley again from 1934 to 1936.
From Deputy to Sheriff
The family record places Della Maude Buis in Claiborne County before her public office. A FamilySearch profile for Frank Kincaid Riley states that he married Della Maude Buis on September 1, 1917, in New Tazewell, Claiborne County, Tennessee. It also identifies them as the parents of several children.
Those family ties are confirmed in later obituaries of their children. Evelyn Marie Riley Babb’s obituary states that she was born in Tazewell and was the daughter of Franklin Kincaid Riley and Della Maude Buis Riley. Mary Ruth Ault’s obituary likewise identifies her parents as Frank Kincaid Riley and Della Buis Riley. These records help tie the sheriff named on the badge to the Riley family of Tazewell and New Tazewell.
When Della Riley became sheriff in 1932, women had held the national right to vote for only twelve years. The Nineteenth Amendment had been ratified in 1920, after Tennessee became the decisive state in the national suffrage fight. In that larger setting, a woman serving as sheriff in a rural Appalachian county was a striking event.
The Murder Case Remembered With Her Badge
The Tennessee State Museum’s object record preserves one of the most important stories from Riley’s time in office. It says that one year after her election, a wealthy but reclusive local farmer was mysteriously killed. Riley was tasked with capturing the people responsible. According to the museum, she worked with Knoxville police to arrest a father and son who admitted to the crime. The museum further notes that her role in the capture and arrest was later profiled in a national true crime magazine.
The exact magazine article has not yet been identified in open online sources. That missing citation is important because it means the case should be handled carefully. The museum record gives the outline, but a fuller account would need the original crime coverage, court records, or the true crime magazine feature itself. Still, even the museum summary shows that Della Riley’s sheriff term was not symbolic. She was remembered for involvement in a serious murder investigation that connected Claiborne County law enforcement with Knoxville police.
Was Della Riley the First Female Sheriff in Tennessee?
The Tennessee State Museum says that Della Riley’s 1932 election made her the first female sheriff in Tennessee. That claim appears in museum material connected to her badge, and it is also repeated in later public memory.
However, earlier newspaper evidence makes the “first” claim difficult to state without qualification. A January 1924 newspaper item reported that Mrs. J. F. Casselberry had taken office in Hardeman County as Tennessee’s first woman sheriff after being elected by the county court to fill a vacancy caused by her husband’s death. A July 1927 newspaper item then reported that Mrs. Betty Caldwell had been elected sheriff of Henry County after the death of her husband, T. P. Caldwell, and that article also described Caldwell as the first woman sheriff in Tennessee.
Because of those earlier reports, the safest wording is that Della Riley was one of Tennessee’s earliest women sheriffs and the best documented woman sheriff connected to Claiborne County’s early twentieth century history. She may have been remembered locally as the first because of the way records were passed down, because of distinctions between appointment and election, or because earlier cases faded from public memory. Without complete county election records and state level confirmation, the exact statewide “first” claim should remain cautious.
Why Her Story Still Matters
Della Riley’s story sits at the intersection of Appalachian county government, women’s public leadership, and local memory. Her surviving badge shows how women in office were often recorded through their husbands’ names, even while doing work under their own authority. The badge says “Mrs. Frank Riley,” but the story behind it belongs to Della Riley.
Her term also shows how quickly the boundaries of public life shifted after women’s suffrage. By 1932, a woman in Claiborne County could serve as sheriff, wear the badge, and take part in a murder investigation remembered strongly enough to enter museum history. That did not mean the world had become equal. The wording on the badge itself shows the older custom still in place. Yet the office was real, the term was real, and the badge survived.
Della Riley died on October 13, 1989. Her Find a Grave memorial identifies her as Della Maude Buis Riley, born May 21, 1900, and buried at Fairview Memorial Cemetery in New Tazewell. A Knoxville News Sentinel obituary clipping from October 15, 1989, described her as a former sheriff and said her family remembered her as the first woman sheriff in Tennessee.
Whether she was the first in the whole state or one of the first, Della Riley belongs in the history of Claiborne County. Her story is not courthouse legend alone. It is held in a surviving badge, a county officeholder list, family records, cemetery memory, and museum preservation. In a region where many women’s public work was left unnamed or recorded only through husbands and families, Della Riley’s badge gives historians something rare: a physical reminder that a Claiborne County woman once carried the authority of sheriff.
Sources & Further Reading
Tennessee State Museum. “Della Riley’s Sheriff Badge [100].” Tennessee at 225: Highlights from the Collection. Accession no. 2008.59.2.1. https://tnmuseum.org/TN225/artifacts/100
Tennessee State Museum. Tennessee at 225: Highlights from the Collection. Nashville: Tennessee State Museum, 2021. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27149109.pdf
Payne, Joe. “Early Officials of Claiborne County.” Claiborne County, Tennessee History and Genealogy. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://joepayne.org/claiborne/officials.htm
Kivett, John J. “Claiborne County.” Tennessee Encyclopedia. Tennessee Historical Society. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/claiborne-county/
FamilySearch. “Frank Kincaid Riley, 1892–1972.” FamilySearch Family Tree. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KZ76-PFG/frank-kincaid-riley-1892-1972
Find a Grave. “Della Maude Buis Riley.” Memorial no. 86416967. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86416967/della_maude-riley
Find a Grave. “Frank Kincaid Riley.” Memorial no. 86416896. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86416896/frank-kincaid-riley
Find a Grave. “William Franklin Riley Sr.” Memorial no. 11839401. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11839401/william-f.-riley
“Mrs. Riley, Former Sheriff, Dies.” The Knoxville News-Sentinel, October 15, 1989. Newspapers.com clipping. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-knoxville-news-sentinel-death-della/185715065/
“Evelyn Babb Obituary.” The Charlotte Observer, July 11, 2007. Legacy.com. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/charlotte/name/evelyn-babb-obituary?id=13800681
“Mary Ruth Ault Obituary.” Claiborne-Overholt Funeral Home, September 2, 2022. Legacy.com. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/mary-ault-obituary?id=36405017
“Ruby Ault Obituary.” Knoxville News Sentinel, June 16–17, 2011. Legacy.com. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/knoxnews/name/ruby-ault-obituary?id=13940530
“Middlesboro Daily News, 11 June 1934, Page 1.” Transcribed in Carson Rose material by Joe Payne. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://www.joepayne.org/carsonrose/carsonrose.html
“Sheriff’s Widow Succeeds Him.” The News-Herald (Lawrenceville, GA), January 31, 1924. Georgia Historic Newspapers. https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053637/1924-01-31/ed-1/seq-1/ocr/
“Wife Succeeds Husband as Sheriff.” The Camden Chronicle (Camden, SC), July 1, 1927. South Carolina Digital Newspaper Program. https://historicnewspapers.sc.edu/lccn/sn86063785/1927-07-01/ed-1/seq-7/ocr/
“Woman Is Sheriff of Henry County.” The Chattanooga News, June 24, 1927. Newspapers.com clipping. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chattanooga-news-woman-is-sheriff-of/197156495/
National Archives. “19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote.” Milestone Documents. Accessed July 9, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/19th-amendment
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Claiborne County, Tennessee.” Accessed July 9, 2026. https://www.arc.gov/states_counties/claiborne/
Author Note: Della Riley’s story survives through a badge, county officeholder records, family memory, and newspaper traces. Because the “first female sheriff in Tennessee” claim is disputed by earlier newspaper reports, this article presents her carefully as one of Tennessee’s earliest women sheriffs.