(Courtesy of Minard Coons)
Above - Ray Whitley at one of
the 1970s film conventions. |
RAY WHITLEY . . . AFTERWARDS
by John Wright
There's a line of a song that claims: "They needed a new star up yonder, and they couldn't find a brighter light to shine . . ."
On February 21, 1979, that condition again prevailed in Cowboy Heaven. That was the day Ray Whitley was called home.
For almost a week before that day, I'd been feeling down: I knew, somehow, that somewhere something wasn't right. Then toward the end of that month the news came by way of a short note from my good and valued friend, Gerald Vaughn.
It isn't easy to express now the feelings I had then. How do you react to the news that a man you've admired since childhood, with whom you have only recently become personally acquainted, a man who has proved to be so very much more than all you've ever believed, has died? It's not easy, and perhaps not even necessary. And so I won't try.
February, 1979, Ray's son-in-law, Hal Bracken, had invited Ray to join him on a fishing trip down in Mexico. Ray was elated, and as Eddie Dean later recalled, Ray phoned to tell him about 'his last great fishing trip', promising to bring back some big ones. On the flight down to Mexico Ray suffered a diabetic shock which brought on a heart seizure. He died shortly after the plane landed.
And the world lost not only a great performer, a great songwriter, but also a man who was, in every sense of the word, just that --- a man. A gentleman.
Probably very few at the conventions, which Ray attended, had any idea of his health problems. Even fewer were aware of the heart attack he experienced not a year before. Watching him on stage, listening to the appreciative reactions of his audience, it would have been very difficult to guess at what he had just been through, or to know, for that matter, that at one of his most successful performances, he was not at all well. Ray never advertised these sort of things.
At one time Ray told his close friend Gerald Vaughn that if he hadn't done enough and meant enough to his friends for them to remember him pretty well, then no memorial service would make any difference. And so it was that he expressed no desire for a fancy funeral or such a memorial service.
But there was a memorial dinner. Held not by the family, but by a number of Ray's close friends in the business. On February 28th, a week after his death, about forty friends gathered for a very private dinner, where each told either of what Ray had meant to him or her, or otherwise recalled some story concerning Ray.
At the dinner were people like Bob Nolan who, when rising to pay his tribute was quite incapable of concealing either his great sense of loss, or his tears. Jimmy Wakely was there, Stuart Hamblen, Tex Williams. Ray's dearest friend, Eddie Dean, Wesley Tuttle, Hank Penny, Doye O'Dell, and others. The men stood and sang "Back in The Saddle Again", along with other Western classics such as "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds", and later Stuart Hamblen sang "It Is No Secret". Jimmy and Eddie lent their voices to a few spirituals ... and Bob Nolan, he wept.
A sad occasion? On the contrary. The evening was a very positive affair. A testimony to a life, which had been full and meaningful, which had reached out to others, and in doing so, left those it, touched so much richer. It was a life of courage, of faith, compassion and love. Somewhere, even as this is being written, someone is watching a Ray Whitley movie or listening to one of his songs. Others will be recalling old times with Ray, while those who were privileged to have met him at conventions will be telling of that experience. They have to, you see. Meeting Ray Whitley simply had to be an unforgettable experience, one to be recounted over and over again, with enthusiasm, with delight, and yes --- with love.
Ray was survived by Kay, his partner for 56 years, three daughters, and a legion of friends and fans.
Gone? No, sir! Ray Whitley is with us still --- in movies and in songs, and where it really counts. In our hearts.
A few weeks after Ray died, in an audio letter to me, Miss Kay told of how, when driving home after attending a funeral, Ray told her that he never wanted to put her or his girls through that sort of stress. Thus it was, in accordance with his wishes, Ray Whitley was cremated, and in private.
On September 23rd, 2000, Catherine Kay Whitley was promoted to Heaven. Miss Kay had joined the Neptune Society, as it was her desire to be cremated just as her loving husband. Her ashes were cast among a rose garden. |
Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Whitley: