'Taken too soon'

By Libby Cluett
lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com

Buds and early blossoms on pear trees combined with sunflowers dotted throughout sprays of flowers seemed to beckon the renewal of spring at the same time family and friends of Precinct 1 Commissioner Ted Ray gathered to bid him farewell.

An estimated 500-plus friends came to “to honor a good man,” said Minister William Eudy at Southside Church of Christ Monday afternoon. Ray’s battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ended on Friday.

Eudy compared Ray’s “untimely death” at age 61 to King David’s sentiment about the loss of Abner, an opposing general, when he cited “A prince and a great man has fallen in Israel this day.”

After Ray’s friend Ike Mercer sang “Amazing Grace,” State District Judge Jerry Ray and Wayland Wright contributed their thoughts and sentiments.

Judge Ray recalled the time when the “terrible diagnosis hit him” in 2006. He said that even with the diagnosis and disease, Ray made decisions, both personal and business, and “stuck by them.”

“He was taken too soon,” said Judge Ray, adding that even though the U.S. put a man on the moon almost 40 years ago, “Scientists and all the resources can’t find a way to treat or defeat this illness that took him from us.

“But ALS never had an opponent like Ted Ray. He continued with dignity and courage. He refused to let ALS define him and instead redefined ALS.

“To me, [ALS] will be known as ‘Amazing Love Story,’” Judge Ray added, which included Ray’s love for his wife and family as wells as friends.

Ray described his friend as an “honest man” and a “mountain of a man.”

“He was hardworking and loved his job – even while so sick, he did his job,” said Judge Ray, explaining that Ted Ray would start researching topics once he received the county agenda, enlisting the aide of his wife, Beth Ray, and Commissioner’s Court Assistant Iris Stagner.

He called Ted Ray “sincere,” explaining that the word translates from Latin into “without wax” and refers to a stone sculpture that was without blemish and therefore needed no wax to fill cracks or marks.

“Take him as he is; there are no cracks to fill,” said Judge Ray.

At the conclusion of eulogizing his friend, Judge Ray shared an excerpt of the taped KTVT-TV (Channel 11) interview from a month ago.

At the Feb. 4 interview and reception, Ted Ray told reporters that he wanted everyone who came that evening to know he was glad they came.

In addition to being remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather, he said that he “would like for my friends to remember me as a good and caring friend, as I remember them. I would also like to be remembered as one of Palo Pinto’s greatest county commissioners.”

Wright, a close friend of Ray’s, brought some levity with stories of young Ted who rolled in a tractor tire off Welcome Mountain, crossing busy streets and into the home of a surprised homeowner.

To laughter, he said that Ray “touched all our lives – some he may have touched a little harder.”

Wright shared that when Beth Ray asked her husband to make a list after his diagnosis of what he wanted to do, Ted Ray told her “I’ve done everything I’ve ever wanted to do.”

He also shared that being county commissioner was Ray’s “proudest accomplishment.”

“Goodbye my good friend. We’re going to miss you,” concluded Wright.

The service included a display of photos of Ray with family, friends, pets, favored cars, flying over the waves in a powerboat, parasailing, skiing, hunting by horseback in Alaska, fishing, riding four-wheelers, wearing his first tuxedo and his swearing in as county commissioner in January 2005. All served as illustrations and lasting momentos of Ray’s life.

Eudy said he found himself wanting to be a better man each time he was around Ray. He shared three things that stood out – Ray’s “fierce devotion to family and friends,” his “unshakable work ethic” and “his strength and courage in the face of trial.”

He said that Ray, the eleventh of 12 children, had the quality of making “friends feel like family and made his family like friends.”

He finally said Ray seemed to have contentment about life that came with the feeling he had done everything he wanted to do. He noted that Ray’s pre-programmed messages – in the computer that gave him a voice in the past several months – included greetings like, “How are you doing today?” and replies that he was doing “great, thank you.”

Using Ray’s model Eudy suggested, “The next time someone asks how you are doing, don’t say ‘fine,’ say ‘great.’”

Before mourners passed the open casket to pay their respects, Eudy concluded that Ray never let ALS “slow him down. He had no bitterness. His only concern was on how hard the illness was on Beth.”

After all left the sanctuary, Ray’s coffin, covered in flowers and his cowboy hat, was escorted by rows of uniformed Palo Pinto County Sheriff’s Posse members and sheriff’s department deputies.

It seems the storms waited while family and friends accompanied Ray to his final resting place in Palo Pinto Cemetery.