'Ray Floyd King' was born November 30, 1938 to Bonnie Bee and John Wesley

King at home in Chickasha, OK along with his twin brother Roy who passed away at the

age of 3 months from pneumonia. He was the youngest of 8 siblings, 3 of whom

passed away in infancy. He lived in Chickasha where his mother ran a lunch store

across the street from the school until third grade. His parents divorced and his mother

moved him to Bethany. The following year they moved to Putnam where his mother ran'

a sundries store. The year after that they moved to OKC where she ran a cafe. That

summer was spent in Dallas where she worked at a Dallas Orphan home. Bonnie

remarried and Ray and family moved back to OKC where he lived and went to school

until the 11th grade. In January of his Jr year he went to California to stay with his

Brother Gene and attended Pasadena City High School. It was in April living in

California when he met Jack Carmicheal and began selling Cutco cutlery, beginning his

life-long career as a salesman. He told me that California was fun and full of adventure,

but he missed his mother. He drove all night to get back home to OKC, narrowly

avoiding a head-on collision because he had drifted off to sleep behind the wheel. He

said he felt there must have been divine intervention to keep him from being killed in a

car accident that night.

He attended Northwest Classen High School his senior year. He graduated and

traveled throughout throughout Texas and Oklahoma doing dinner parties and selling

cookware until he settled in Dallas 1966 where he became an independent dealer and

began working for himself. This is where he met the love of his life, Wanda June

Christmas, while attending Gaston Avenue Baptist Church. Ray and Wanda had their

first date Sept 19, 1967. He proposed to her December 19th of that same year at Lake

Cliff, and they were married the following Easter weekend. Last April they celebrated 47

years of marriage. My mother said she was not interested in a serious relationship when

they started dating and certainly had no plans to get married but he was not like any

other man she had ever met. She said she prayed about it and decided that God had

sent the right man to her. They bought their first home in Oakcliff, TX and had their first

child, Joanna in May, 1970. Stephen was born two years later. Ray was still a traveling

quite a distance doing dinner parties and spent many late nights on the road. We moved

to Troupe, TX in October of 1973 because it was central to the area where most of his

dinner parties took place. We had lovely little place in the rolling hills of East Texas with

tall pine trees and a pony.

In October of 1977 Susan was born, and in January of 1978 we packed all our

belongings into a Ryder truck and moved to Colorado Springs. My Dad was weary from

traveling to dinner parties and wanted to spend more time with his family so he

transitioned from late nights and dinner parties to selling from home on the phone. We

listened to his sales pitches so often and him describing the innovative new way of

cooking with "waterless" cookware that I could have run a dinner party at the age of 10.

He was one of the hardest working men I knew, but had arranged his life and work to be

with his family, always making us his number one priority. In the summer of 1982 we

moved to our cabin in the mountains, living in the community of Crystal Park, about

2000 feet up overlooking Colorado Springs. It was a wonderful place to be a kid, hiking

and exploring with my siblings. I'm sure my Mom would have had a heart attack if she

had seen the places we took my little sister. By God's grace we never fell off a high rock

or cliff while climbing and playing. Our mountain home was beautiful, but remote and a

hard place to live with kids in school and church activities, so once again we packed all

we owned into a Ryder truck moved and to Mannford, Ok. July 2, 1985. The previous

spring we had taken a trip to Mannford to attend my cousin Kathy's wedding. During that

trip, our family showed us pictures and took us around to see the destruction from a

recent tornado that had cause devastating damage there. I remember thinking how glad

I was that I did not live in a place that had tornadoes, but on the trip home, my Dad told

us we would be moving to Mannford. At this point I began to question his sanity. Did he

not see the damage? But the moved happened and this is where Ray and Wanda have

spent their remaining years attending Lakeside Baptist church, surrounded by a

community of friends and faith.

He was a living example of what a loving husband should be. He adored my

Mom and put her above all others. He was a loving son who also adored his mother and

called her every Sunday. He was the kind of Dad that would wrestle on the floor, sing

the baby to sleep, and tell silly bedtime stories about Charlie the Chicken. He was

generous and open hearted, always baffled by selfish and hurtful behavior in others. He

was hopeful and optimistic, in any situation, believing that God would take care of him

and the ones he loved and the best was yet to come. Every time we moved, he would

give us a speech about the new place being an opportunity for new and better things.

He never loss his sense of wonder and adventure and love of trying new things. He had

a wonderful sense of humor and passed on to me a love of terrible jokes. He taught me

to see the humor in life to soften up the rough edges. He was a loving grandfather to 7

grandchildren of whom he was so proud. This is his legacy. He lived a life of faith and

love that has been passed to his children and grandchildren. He was a protector and

provider, partner and companion to my Mom. His absence will leave a vacancy that

cannot be filled. Yet while we mourn, we rejoice in this wonderful life and have peace

knowing that he is reunited with his mother, siblings, and many friends and family who

have gone before. Though he's not physically here, I can feel him looking down on us.

Cheering us on to be our best, to work hard, to love fully, and to always have faith. God

is good and I am thankful to have had such a wonderful Dad.

In loving memory by Joanna Darrow July 25, 2015