Agnes Christensen Risley - Class of 1926

Agnes Christensen Risley was born in Sparks, Nevada on December 16, 1908, to recent Danish immigrants, C.J. and Catherine (Jensen) Christensen. She attended the original Robert Mitchell School, Sparks Middle School and Sparks High School, graduating in 1926. She graduated from University of Nevada where she earned her teaching certificate in 1928. She then taught school in Lovelock for one year and in Fallon (Stillwater) for two years before returning to Sparks to teach third grade at Kate Smith School for two years.

In 1932, she married Clarence Risley. School policy at the time decreed that only single women could teach, so she became a full-time homemaker. In 1946, Agnes was elected to the Sparks School Board serving as President, Secretary and Clerk of the Board. It was her suggestion that all new grammar schools be built according to the same plan as well as be adjacent to parks. Shortly after leaving in 1961 to care for her ailing husband, she was honored by the Washoe County Board with the naming of the Agnes Risley Elementary School on Byrd Drive in Sparks. In 1962, Ms. Risley joined the staff of the Sparks branch of the Washoe County Library as the Children’s Librarian. She created numerous innovative programs while working there. Upon her retirement in 1974, Mayor James C. Lillard of the City of Sparks declared June 14, 1974, “Agnes Risley Day,” in recognition of her many years of public service.

Ms. Risley’s favorite saying was: “Civility costs nothing, but buys everything.”

Inducted 2006