Danny Ray:
CLASS OF 1969
Coleman High SchoolClass of 1969
Coleman, TX
Cooper High SchoolClass of 1968
Abilene, TX
Danny's Story
I am an Ordained Minister, Musician, Songwriter, Recording Artist, Disabled Vietnam Vet /USAF, a reenactor Indian since I'm part Cherokee & a Texas Ranger, and part owner with my brother "Bob Ray" in a Recording Studio he built behind his house. We recorded my Rockabilly Gospel album "House on Solid Rock" in 1998 with ten songs I wrote starting at age 13. The first song I wrote was "Train to Glory" and it went to the #3 spot on the Global Charts and the Country Music Charts of the top 50! The ten songs on the CD are all mine and they all went from the #21 spot down to the #3. I will be recording a Pop-Country album of my songs very soon!!
Bob played lead-guitar with the Country Music band "Southern Cross" which had the hit song "Zac's Golden Fiddle". Bob played for charity at the "Outlaws & Legends Concert" in Abilene for several years. He played with Merle Haggard twice and is a personal good friend with Neal McCoy. My Dad played guitar with "Ray Thompson's Band" before he ever met my Mom. Ray was the younger brother of the Country Star "Hank Thompson"! My Dad wrote the song "They Took the Stars All Out of Heaven (the day he took her from me) that was recorded by Floyd Tillman. It made a Hit for Floyd!
In my music career I have played with the black Country Star "Eddie Burns". I recorded four songs with Eddie on Plantation Records and all four songs made hits for him. Through Eddie I got to meet and jam for an hour with the "Godfather of the Blues" Mr. B.B. King and his guitar "Lucille". I was only 16 years old. Then my Dad's job transferred back to Coleman where I came to graduate in 1969 and I had turned 17. I wanted to graduate at Cooper High School but had to go with the family.
I lost track of Eddie for several years until I had a young man emailed me from my website and asked me if I was the Danny Ray that played drums with Eddie Burns. I replied "Yes"! He said that I was the only one that Eddie ever talked about. I asked him where Eddie was and he told me that he was in his hometown of Giddings,TX in a Nursing Home. He said he could still play his Fender guitar but his legs didn't work to good. He and I agreed that Eddie was great impersonating "Jimi Hendrix". He would put on his Afro wig flip his right handed guitar upside down and play it left handed like Jimi. He could play circles around Jimi Hendrix and could sing just like him.
He had an interchanging voice. He could sound like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Buck Owens, and Ray Charles. Eddie could play blues, Rock-N-Roll, Country, and Gospel. Eddie passed away in 2011! I never got a chance to go see him but we talked a long time on the phone. He was glad I was playing for the Lord. I have his picture hanging in the Ray's Recording Studio. I think old Johnny Bush is going to record with us. He told Bob that the recording studios where he lives is eating him up on studio time. Bob told him that we would undercut prices from any studio in the State of Texas. That put a big smile on Johnny's face!!
I was married to my wonderful wife Pat for 45 years until Cervix Cancer took her life on September 16, 2016 while she was in the Holiday Hill Nursing Home. Pat was '68 graduate of Santa Anna High School 8 miles East of Coleman in Coleman County. Her parents were B.R. and Patt Walton.. I was holding her hand watching her favorite T.V. show "The Andy Griffith Show"!! She asked me, "Danny what am I supposed to do when the Angels come?" I replied,"You go with them Momma. Why do you ask?" She said that they had come for her last night and she told them that she wasn't ready to go (I am sorry because I am crying while I type).
I hadn't left her side while she was sick for two and one half months and my hair was on my shoulders. I told her the next time they come you go with them. She asked,"Will y'all be alright?" I answered, "Sure Momma the Good Lord will take care of us." I was leaning over her looking at those beautiful blue eyes when she said, "Danny I want you to promise me some things." I asked, "What are they Momma?" She answered, "Please take care of the family!" Our only daughter Latrisha, son-in-law Douglas, my grandson Marcus, and my adopted son Michael lived with us in the big J.E. Stevens' home place on Cottonwood St. here in Coleman!
Pat continued with, "Take care of my dog Fred, I want you to find another woman because I don't want you being lonely, and please don't cut your hair until it reaches your waist line and then have a beautician cut it long enough to donate it to "Wigs for Kids!" I promised her I would. Then she said in a soft voice, "Danny they are here to get me!" I began crying more and told her to go with them. I started watching her blue eyes change to a pale yellow. She took one last breath and her chest didn't rise again!! We had her cremated and her ashes put in a beautiful blue vase. She is with us here at home. I have her vase in my Mom's China hutch.
We have a memorial fixed above the bookcase with her pictures and a banner we had made to drape around the vase at the funeral. When I die I want to be cremated and have the kids bury our vases either on my property side by side or in the Ray cemetery plot here in Coleman. I am keeping her promises but I have not remarried yet because I can't quench the love for her to start a new life with another woman. That will come when God brings another woman into my life!! So single ladies, widowed, or divorced I am ready to find another gal to share the rest of my life with! I will treat you like a Queen just like I did my wife for 45 years!! There was a few times I made her cry but I wasn't myself. I had a lot of problems after I got back from Vietnam. I didn't like what I had become. God has brought me a long way baby!!
I have a computer Ministry where I send out religious newsletters. I have about 60 Prayer Warriors!! I have been doing this since 2001. Through this ministry I met a Gospel singing star from Australia that has sold millions of her CD albums throughout the United Kingdom. She is recording in California because they are too expensive in Australia and Eric Clapton is her guitar man in the recording booth.
Her name is "Angelica Francis Tremblay" but she just goes by Angelica Francis on the internet. She made a surprise visit to me a few years back and spent a few days with me. We went to churches here in Coleman on Wednesday and Sunday services where she could sing and share the Lord with everyone. She has a beautiful voice and she heard me singing along with her on one of her songs. Afterwards she said, "The next time I cut an album I want you to sing duo with me! I want you to meet Eric Clapton!!" I gave her one of my autographed albums (she gave me one of hers) and she took it back to California so Eric and her record producers could hear it. She sent me an email and told me the producers really liked my singing and the songs I wrote. Eric Clapton told her that he really wanted to meet me. He really enjoyed my songs and my singing.
When my lotto number came up to join the military in 1972 I joined the USAF and did boot camp at Lackland AFB in San Antonio for six weeks. They wanted me to join the Air Force Academy in Colorado and become a pilot or join the Air Force Special Forces. That would be eight more weeks of training and I didn't want to do either one. I chose the Administration Field handling TOP SECRET documents and keeping records on about 50 pilots at Reese AFB in Lubbock,TX! My daughter is a military baby! I tell her she only cost me $25 which was the admission price into the hospital and the Air Force paid the rest. They even gave Pat and I a candlelight steak dinner with wine. Cool!! While Pat was carrying Trisha we got to see "Elvis Presley" in concert (Oct. 1974) in Abilene,TX. One ...Expand for more
of my dreams that came true!! You could tell Elvis was sick but he tried not to let it bother him and he put on a beautiful performance!! There were so many people in Taylor County Colosseum that you couldn't breathe. Standing room only!! Luckily my wife and I put in for our tickets early and got balcony seats looking down on the stage. I borrowed a fancy German made camera from one of my officer friends on base and put new batteries in it but he didn't tell me that the flash was separate from the camera so I shot a picture but no flash!! When the picture ejected it was black. I didn't get one picture of Elvis!! Rats!! I even tried to buy one from a lady not to far from me using a Polaroid camera but "Oh! No!!" she wasn't going to part with one picture!!
When Bob and I started playing together Bob was five years old (guitar) and I was 13 (on drums). We got to play on the stage with T.V. Stars "Dale Robertson" from "Wells Fargo", "Fess Parker" from "Daniel Boone", "The Beverly Hillbillies", and "Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass". We got their autographs and talked to each one. Fess Parker wanted to take Bob with him back to California and Bob was ready to go.
The Star/Stars that would come each year to promote the "March of Dimes Telethon" aired on KRBC-TV in Abilene. After Bob and I played the first year with Dale Robertson hosting the show we were asked to come back the next three years! I do not know how much money we raised for the "March of Dimes" but people kept calling in donating money to hear us play again. At that time Bob and I knew about eight Beatle songs and two are three Country songs. We would have to repeat songs each time we were called back on stage. That was a lot fun and Bob and I still talk about our good old days of playing music together.
In my life I worked with my Dad breaking wild mustangs when I was 10 yrs. old. I broke my own horse when I was eleven and named her Sweet Baby because she was a Pinto and had a perfect heart around her rear-end. It broke my heart when I had to sell her because we were moving to Abilene. That horse was smart and she loved me. I helped my Dad stretch barbed wire fences, helped him sand and mask off cars so he could paint them.
By trade my Dad was a bodyman for 40+ years. He worked for Taylor Motor Co., P.R. Price Paint & Body Shop, and Apache Body Shop here in Coleman. In Abilene he worked for Toyota of Abilene, National Body Works, Rocket Oldsmobile & Buick, and Milze Brown Paint & Body Shop. I know you are probably thinking "Boy! Danny's Dad must have been a terrible bodyman to have to jump around to all of those businesses!" Just the opposite! My Dad was the only one in the Big Country that would work fiberglass car bodies and make them look like they drove off the showroom floor. Dad took a lot of pride in his work. He told me "Son, consider me as an artist. When an artist gets his picture painted so beautiful they are so proud to sign their name on it! That's what I want you to do in life! Do something beautiful in your life that you will be proud to sign your name to it!!" My Dad had a third grade education and my Mom went to the sixth grade but my Dad could out spell her.
When Dad went into the Army during World War II he scored the highest in every field on his test. He even beat some that had college educations. When the Sgt. asked him what college he attended my Dad replied, "I didn't go to college I only went to the third grade." The Sgt. didn't believe him and Dad told him, "Hands on experience is the best teacher!!" My Dad went into the Combat Engineers but he wound up going to a German Prison Camp in the State of Washington.
I went to Cooper High School my Freshman ('66) and Junior ('68) years and Coleman High School my Sophomore ('67) and Senior ('69) years. I went to Fair Park Elementary and Jefferson Jr. High in Abilene. I went to South Ward and West Ward Elementary and Coleman Junior High in Coleman so you see I have been bounced around from Coleman to Abilene, back to Coleman, then back to Abilene. We wore the road out between Coleman and Abilene because of my Dad's job! My Mom and I worked at Jay & Ray Cleaners across the street from McMurry College. I also attended Draughon's Business College at night. That is when I was driving the pickup/delivery truck for the cleaners and I delivered clothes to "B.J. Thomas"!! He gave me a FREE ticket (for my girlfriend Janice Grooms) to get into his concert that night. I also dated Sheryl Williams too! They were going to Cooper when I was. My four good buddies were Ray Dittmore, Barry Lipham, Sonnie Seals, and Rickey Wise (he was my next door neighbor). I finally found Mickey, Rickey, and Patti Wise and talked to them over the phone. They were glad to hear from me and asked about my siblings and my family!! It was sad the way Barry Lipham died and for the loss of Sonnie Seals. There was one guy in Cooper P.E. that I hated to wrestle and that was James Owens. That fellar never took a bath or brushed his teeth. Call about stink "wow wee" he could put a hog to shame! I noticed in the Abilene Reporter News that James also passed away. I hope and pray that he knew the Lord as Savior!! God/Jesus Christ can clean him up inside and out!!
My hobbies are fishing, hunting (when I get asked) camping out, collecting coins (U.S. and from around the World), military memorabilia especially bayonets, knives, helmets, Gurkha Kukri knives from Nepal & India, collect old WWI and WWII bolt action rifles (fun target shooting/hunting with) shooting my cap-n-ball revolvers and shooting my muzzleloading Kentucky rifle, collect old newspapers from the 17th, 18th,19th, and some 20th century England & America, Elvis & the Beatles memorabilia, diecast cars & airplanes, playing on my drums and guitars, writing songs, doing reenactments as a Native American or Texas Ranger, collect Civil War memorabilia, shark jaws & teeth (genuine & fossil), collect stone arrowheads, scrapers, fossils, and rocks!!
I also craft Native American bows & arrows to shoot or hang on your wall!! I used to fly professional Stunt Kites & throw Professional Boomerangs. I am a Life Member of the "Boomerang Association of Texas" (B.A.T.) and was a member of the United States Boomerang Association" (U.S.B.A.) for years!! This was playing with the Big Boys!! You had to work hard competing in other Boomerang contests racking up points before you could try out for the U.S.B.A. Team which travel around the World competing with other teams in other countries!! I liked 250 points to have enough to try out when they changed the rules on us which would cause me to put in more practice hours and I couldn't do it because of my job so I quit throwing competitively!!
I don't throw boomerangs much anymore I just collect them from other Professional throwers from around the World. I also buy antique boomerangs off of Ebay. I can make a blowgun from bamboo or river cane, a sling like David used to defeat Goliath in the Bible, or just about any primitive weapon you would want. I took a primitive weapons course while I was in the military.
That's about all I have to share except the Good Lord saved my life six times in Vietnam because I quoted Psalm 91 every day I was there. My brother-in-law Dave went through the '68 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. He is suffering dearly from Agent Orange exposure. I have some of his symptoms. When I got home my wife, daughter, Mom, & Dad didn't know me. I was off in battle grounds. I couldn't sleep because of the nightmares and the things I saw. It's hard trying to clean out your base with one hand and fighting the enemy with the other. I tried taking my life twice but God stopped me from dying. O.K., enough is enough!! Thank You and God Bless You for reading all of this!! Danny
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