Martha Van Der Eems Riviere

Martha Van Der Eems Riviere October 18, 1931 – May 13, 2020 Martha Van Der Eems Riviere of Suwanee, Georgia passed away peacefully at home with her husband of 66 years, A. Milton Riviere on Wednesday, May 13, 2020. Born to John and Jentien Abbink Van Der Eems in Prospect Park, New Jersey on October 18, 1931, she was the third of five children: Jake, Margaret (Dolly), Mona and John. A precocious child, Martha graduated from Hawthorne High School in 1949 and went on to earn a BS in Business in 1953 from Wheaton College in Illinois where she met Milt, the love of her life. They shared a lifelong love of choral music, and both were members of the Glee Club throughout their years at Wheaton. They married after Marty’s graduation on September 5, 1953, at Hawthorne Gospel Church in Hawthorne, New Jersey where her parents were founding members. Beginning their lives and their family with the birth of James Clifford in Illinois as Milt completed his Batchelor’s degree, they very shortly moved on to Arkansas where they lived with Milt’s parents as he prepared to go to Seminary. Not long after, they proceeded to Hopewell, New Jersey where the young family expanded with the birth of John Kenneth and Milt earned his Master’s of Divinity in 1958 from Princeton Theological Seminary. Both sons attended the ceremony. Marty became a homemaker as they moved to Arkansas and Milt began his career in the ministry and their family grew with the births of Jacqueline and Jeanette. Marty’s parents welcomed the young family for a year’s leave in New Jersey as Milt began his doctoral work in Christian Education at Columbia University. When Milt accepted a post on the faculty at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1966, the family moved to Decatur, Georgia where Marty moved from part-time work in the Treasurer’s Office at Agnes Scott College to a full-time job as manager of the Columbia Theological Seminary Bookstore. Friends and family members delighted in Marty and Milt’s generous hospitality, which continued when they moved to Tucker, Georgia in 1973. Local and out-of-town guests exulted in lavish family dinners prepared with love. Before long, she was working as an Office Manager for TransAmerica Insurance agency, later continuing her career first as an office manager and then an Insurance rater for Aetna Insurance in Buckhead. An enthusiastic member of Northwoods Presbyterian Church (later Church of the New Covenant), where she “suffered the joys of a minister’s wife” according to Milt, Marty was an avid member of the choir, the Women’s Circle and the weekly crochet group where she knitted hundreds of baby caps for Emory DeKalb Medical Center. As her mother before her, she was gifted with the amazing ability to work the needles without seeming to pay attention. Together, Marty and Milt enjoyed a life of broad cultural engagement through their avid appreciation of music and theater, and particularly their love of European travel. Perhaps their enormous love for their children is most dramatically exemplified by the generous gift of travel, as they treated each child and his or her spouse to a singular and enduringly memorable vacation in Europe. Marty was preceded in death by her parents and brother Jake and sister Margaret (Dolly Bidgood), and is survived by her husband, Milt, her sister Mona Dodds, her brother John Van Der Eems, her children Cliff (Judy), Kenneth (Mary Martha), Jacqueline Smith (Gregg) and Jeanette Fleischer (Don). She will be loved, remembered, and missed by her grandchildren Melissa Hearn (Rich), Michael (Megan), Jessica (Sten Heinze), Alex (Alison), Grey Willow (Thorn), Grant Smith (Christie), Doug, and Nikki as well as her great grandchildren Hailey, Becca Hearn, Bryan Hearn, JR, Logan, and Lynne Heinze. Arrangements for an electronic memorial service will be announced. Please leave your condolences for Martha at www.flaniganfuneralhome.com . Please join us as we gather to celebrate my mother’s life, electronically since the current pandemic prevents us from being together as would wish. I have tried to include as many direct emails as I have access to. Please feel free to forward this invite to whoever you think would like to attend. Service will be at 3:00 EST. The time listed above does not necessarily link to the length of the service. We are open to scheduling zoom visitation with Milt and/or us – please reply to me if you would like us to arrange such a visit. During the service we will have everyone besides the speakers muted to minimize disruption, as zoom does not cope well with simultaneous sounds from two different sources. For those new to Zoom, I have included a few FAQs at the bottom of this invite. For those who have not seen it, here is a link to Mom’s obit. https://www.flaniganfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Martha-Riviere/#!/Obituary

Martha Van Der Eems Riviere

October 18, 1931 - May 13, 2020