Denison Herald
Tuesday, January 21, 1986

DENISON - A man who spent the last 30 years making Denison children happy at Christmastime died Monday shortly after noon at a local hospital.
Funeral for Theodore Thomas "Tedd" Riffell, 69, will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Waples Methodist Church. Dr. Tom Peel will officiate and burial will be in Fairview Cemetery under direction of Johnson-Moore Funeral Home.
Riffell, who played Santa Claus in Denison to an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 children every Christmas until the past two years when ill health sidelined him from his holiday activities, suffered a massive heart attack while driving down Gandy Street Monday morning.
Mary Lou "Sam" Ritchie, who was driving in front of Riffell, noticed him slump across the steering wheel of his pickup and drove slowly in front of him until his vehicle came to a stop. She then called an ambulance and passerbys gave CPR until paramedics arrived.
Riffell was treated in the emergency room, then placed in the Intensive Care Unit.
He was born March 27, 1916, in Denison, son of Charles and Laura Bell Riffell. He had been active in Waples Methodist Church for a number of years. Eleven months out of the year he operated Riffell Landscaping Service and in December he celebrated Christmas.
In honor of his silver anniversary as Denison's Santa, Riffell was honored by the Jaycees, Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis Club and Denison Downtown Association and the Chamber of Commerce for his service to the children of Denison.
Survivors include one brother, Jack, of Waterman, ILL.
Pallbearers will be Otis Higginbotham, Lonnie Legg, Mark Thomas, Gil Alzua, Marc Sedlmeir and Neil Shirley.