Note: Her birth date on her tombstone is inaccurate. She was born in 1892 although she claimed she was born in 1900, dropping her age by 8 years. (The King family had a habit of moving from place to place and of changing their birth dates and birth places and sometimes their names, probably to conceal their relationship to their brother Earnest King who may have killed--probably between late 1915 and early 1917--a man near Lumberton, Robeson County, North Carolina, then changed his name--on his World War I draft registration in June 1917 or earlier--to Earnest Robert Cain, and gone into hiding in Kingstree, Williamsburg County, South Carolina. Earnest's nephew, Walter Kit Bailey, five years Earnest's junior, may also have been involved and changed his name to Christopher Kit Bailey. Of Nettie and her siblings, Edna dropped her age by 12 years, Laurie added 6 years to her age, Lawrence dropped his age by 11 years, Lonnie dropped his age by 5 years, Nettie dropped her age by 8 years, and Earnest added a year to his age. I would love to know more about the mystery of Nettie's brother Earnest.)

Born on Sunday, May 29, 1892 in Robeson County, North Carolina and raised along the South Carolina (Dillon County) and North Carolina (Robeson County) line, Nettie Donnie King Neely Riley was the daughter and one of eight surviving children out of eleven of William Edward ("Eddie") King and Margurett (pronounced Marguerite) "Maggie" Jane Edwards King. She was seventh of eight in birth order. Donnie completed the fourth grade, and the 1910 census reports her as unable to read or write. The 1920 census reports she could read and write. Family suspected she was dyslexic. She had hazel green eyes and black hair like her son Joe and granddaughter Sharlotte. She loved cats. Nettie Donnie King Neely Riley was raised by her older siblings after the death of her mother. (The family had a habit of changing their birth dates and birth places and sometimes their names.)

Joseph Bowden Neely, Sr. and Nettie Donnie King Neely (Riley) probably met around 1910 while working at the Dillon County, South Carolina cotton mill. In 1910 Bowden and his sisters Ada, Janie, and probably Ruth were boarders at the home of their first cousin Lizzie Rebone Sarvis Cannon and her husband Isaac Lewis Cannon in Manning, Dillon County. The 1910 census shows Donnie and her brother, Lawrence A. King, and his family living as boarders near the cotton mill in the home of Allen and Elizabeth Hamilton in Manning. (Were the Hamiltons relatives?). Her brother Lonnie King and his family lived nearby. Records show Donnie living in Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina in 1911. Bowden's sister Ada was also in Wilmington in 1911 (to get married to Thomas S. Young). Bowden and his sister Ruth were there in 1913 (shortly before Ruth married Harry C. Wink, moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and had her first child). Donnie and Bowden probably married in Wilmington sometime between 1911 and 1916. (I would love to solve the mystery of exactly when and where they were married.). The couple moved to Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia by 1916 or earlier.

In 1916 Bowden and Donnie lived in Savannah at 411 Berrien. While living at 524 West York Street in Savannah, they had twin sons in 1920 who died in infancy. Later two surviving sons, Joseph Bowden Neely, Jr. (born at 524 West York Street) and James Robert Neely, Sr. (born at 309 East 35th Street), were born. Sometime between 1916 and 1920, her husband went from being called "Bowden" to being called "Joe." Sometime between 1916 and 1917, the time period that her brother Earnest may have killed a man and gone into hiding, she went from being called "Donnie" to being called "Nettie." In the 1916 Savannah Directory, she is Donnie Neely, and in the 1917 Savannah Directory, she is Nettie Neely. So Bowden and Donnie became Joe and Nettie. In some records she is listed as Donnie E. King. Could the "E" stand for Ennette, and could Nettie be a nickname for Ennette? In 1925 and 1926 the Neelys lived at 315 York Street in Savannah. By 1927 they lived in a home they owned at 309 East 35th Street in Savannah. Nettie and her sons were still living in that house in 1930. The house was valued at $7000 in 1930 (equal to more than $107,000 in 2019). With Joe's death, however, his widow and children sank into poverty.

Widowed in 1928 at age 36, with two young children, at the beginning of the Depression, she went to work for the Chatham County Democratic Party under Johnny Bowen and supported her family working in a soup kitchen. Years later she married Harry Riley (buried at Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah). She and her first husband had three grandchildren, James Robert Neely, Jr., John Michael Neely, and Sharlotte Neely Donnelly; six great-grandchildren; and several great-great-grandchildren. After the death of her second husband Harry, she lived with her son Robbie's family until her death.

Although poor throughout her life, about 1957 she bought a dining room table and chairs set for each of her sons--pink for Joe's family and bronze for Robbie's. When young girls collected "pop beads" in the 1950s, she often got some for her only granddaughter, Sharlotte. She also passed along her love of visiting cemeteries to Sharlotte.

Nettie died of a heart attack at her son Robbie's home on March 24, 1958 in Savannah at age 65, although she claimed she was born in 1900 and was only 57. When her son Joe returned home to tell her granddaughter Sharlotte that "Ga-ga" Riley was dead, he said, "Now I am an orphan." With his father dead when Joe was only five years old and no other relatives in Savannah other than his mother and baby brother, Joe's biggest fear as a child was that he would be orphaned. Nettie is buried next to her beloved first husband in the Neely family plot in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah. The birth date on her grave stone is inaccurate. Her ancestry was probably English, Scots-Irish, and, through the King surname, coastal Carolina Native American, probably Lumbee.

DNA testing reveals Nettie and her direct female descendants and ancestors and their brothers are of the clan of "Helena" (mtDNA haplogroup H) who lived 20,000 years ago in the Dordogne region of southwest France near the present city of Perpignan on the Mediterranean, gathering oysters and hunting and creating cave paintings.

Thanks so much to her sons Joe and Robbie Neely and her granddaughter Sharlotte Neely Donnelly for much of this information. Any errors are mine alone. Please go to the "edit" link on this site with any corrections or additions.