Obit – Mr. Raymond C. “Ray” Whitehair
Mr. Raymond C. “Ray” Whitehair, of San Antonio, Texas and a Smith County native who was a loving father, grandfather, brother and friend, was called to heaven at the Changing Seasons Care Center in San Antonio on Tuesday morning, September 13, 2022, following a period of declining health. Mr. Whitehair was 81.
Funeral services were to be conducted Wednesday evening, September 21st, beginning at 6 p.m. from the Sunset Funeral Home in San Antonio.
The Whitehair family will receive friends from 5 p.m. until the Celebration of Life.
Born Raymond C. Whitehair on April 10, 1941, he was the son of the late Ammon C. Whitehair, who died December 28, 1991 at the age of 76, and Ruby Frances Grisham Whitehair, who died Jul 31, 1999 at the age of 80.
He was preceded in death by an infant sister, Sibel Ann Whitehair, who was born September 27, 1946 and died September 29, 1946, at the age of 2 days old.
Mr. Whitehair was a 1959 graduate of Smith County High School where he majored in Agriculture which he studied all four years, and Commercial. His sophomore years he was in the Science Club and played basketball. In the 1959 senior annual it was stated of him: “A tall man with a mighty heart”.
Ray made the following statement to his classmates for the 50 year class reunion in 2009: I have had the most exciting and challenging life anyone could have. I have spent my entire career in show business with the last thirty four years being spent with a secondary occupation of law enforcement. These two occupations have allowed me to see the world on someone else’s dime, from the serenity beauty of Belgium to combat zones.
Following high school he was employed as a camera person at WLAC (now WTVF) television studios in Nashville from 1959 until 1964.
From 1964 until 1968, after he relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, where he worked at the Redstone Arsenal Military Installation in Huntsville, Alabama as chief camera person for three mobile units.
These were his following assignments, 1968-1980, Chief of Studio Operations, U. S. Army, Medical Department in San Antonio and where his work took him all over the world; 1980-1985, Chief Television and Motion Picture, Special Operations 18th Airborne, Fort Bragg, North Carolina; 1985-1986, Television Director, Fort Benning, Georgia; 1986-1991, Television Director, Fort Benning, Georgia; 1991, 2006, Chief of Television Productions, U. S. Army Medical Corps, San Antonio, Texas.
On January 9, 1965 he was united in marriage to Huntsville, Alabama native, the former Gayle Brooks.
Later he transitioned to the Medical Division in the United States Army as a Federal Employee. Following the several enumerated military base transfers, he retired with forty years of service at Fort Sam Houston, Texas on July 2, 2006 as the Chief of Televisions Production.
In his spare time he was sworn into the Cornal County Police Department on December 29, 1999 and retired again on May 5, 2015, after fifteen years of loyal service to that department.
Ray enjoyed being surrounded by family and friends, riding on his Harley, hunting, fishing and definitely never met a stranger.
Surviving, in addition to the love of his life, Gayle, following fifty seven years of blissful marriage, are their three children, Cynthia Whitehair Adams and husband, Joel, of Waynesboro, Georgia, Russell Whitehair of San Antonio, and Ryan Whitehair and wife, Shannon, of Boerne, Texas; four granddaughters, Amber Hills, McKenzie and Ryleigh Whitehair, Raelyine Whitehair; grandson, Owen Adams; sisters, Ramona Whitehair Griffith and husband, Jimmy, of Mount Juliet, Barbara Whitehair Dillehay of Carthage, Janice “Jan” Whitehair Presley and husband, Ray, of Lafayette; several nieces and nephews.
This notice provided as a courtesy to the Whitehair family.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
