John Riley

When Bobby Was Bob John Riley

She had moved to a small town in Tennessee. After two years of college she went to New York City to attend Parsons School of Fashion Design. Shortly thereafter she became a Powers Model and met Bob Kennedy - not Bobby - but the real Robert F. Kennedy who was turning 19. He fell for her - she fell for him and the city. She met his mother Rose; sisters Pat and Jean; father Joseph P.; an uncle; grandparents; and even Clark Gable. It was a different life than she had ever known. The courtship ended when she discovered Bob was two years younger only to be rekindled three months later. On the night of their last date she was rushed to New York Hospital and died there ten days later from a cerebral hemorrhage on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1945. Reve Riley had made it as a model. Her pictures would continue to be in Vogue and Glamour magazines for the next three months. A few days after her death Bob left Harvard to serve aboard the naval destroyer named after his brother who had been killed during a dangerous mission. THIS IS A TRUE LOVE STORY ... not Fiction!