Jackson has had many funeral directors and parlors throughout its long history. In modern times, three have continued to serve our community. Breathitt Funeral Home, Deaton Funeral Home, and Watts Funeral Home. Along the way, many others have opened, merged, changed their names, and several closed. In 1940, one of Breathitt’s funeral directors was elected to lead the state association of funeral home directors and embalmers.
A newspaper image of Lee Porter Ray from a 1940 newspaper article.
Lee Porter Ray did not have the honor of being born in Breathitt County, but more importantly, he chose to call Jackson home. Ray was born on July 9, 1891, at Sardis in Mason County, Kentucky, to Thomas Preston and Willie Kate (Swart) Ray.
Ray attended schools in Mason County and graduated near the top of his class. He worked at several jobs before he became interested in the funeral business. He enrolled and eventually graduated from the Clark School of Embalming in Cincinnati. He later attended the Hohenschuh-Carpenter College of Embalming in Des Moines, Iowa. He worked a few years for a funeral home in Maysville and lived at 315 River Street when World War I broke out in Europe.
At 25, Ray registered with the local draft board in Maysville on June 5, 1917. The registrar, C. T. Brown, described Ray as tall and slender. He noted Ray’s grey eyes and brown hair. Brown wrote on the registration form that Ray was not bald, had not lost “an arm, leg, hand, foot, or both eyes,” and was not “otherwise disabled.”
Lee Porter Ray’s draft registration from World War I.
At twenty-five, Ray was a little older than most of the young boys of Maysville who were volunteering for Uncle Sam’s call. He did not volunteer, but Mason County initiated the draft when enlistments slowed. In September 1917, the local draft board was required to enlist 45 men to meet their quota. In the first round of September drafts, Lee Porter Ray was ordered to report for duty.
Ray’s name appeared on the list of men called up by the Draft Board published in the September 17, 1917, edition of The Maysville Public Ledger.
The letter came by mail the week of September 19, ordering Ray to report to the local draft station on Friday, September 28, to be inducted into the United States Army. He and 33 other men were housed for the night in a local motel, and then, the next morning, he was on his way to Camp Zachary Taylor at Louisville for training.
Ray completed his training. Based on his real-life experience, Ray was detailed as an embalmer for the United States Army’s mortuary division. He was soon very busy. World War I started in the earliest stages of a worldwide pandemic- the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918. As soldiers arrived at Camp Zachary Taylor from across the states, the flu spread at an alarming pace. The infirmary filled with patients, and the death rate skyrocketed. Camp Taylor was not the only training camp that experienced an outbreak. The United States Army estimated that more than 45,000 soldiers died of the flu during WWI. Ray embalmed thousands at Camp Taylor and sent their remains home to family for burial.
After the war ended, Ray did not return to his job at the funeral home in Maysville. He chose to remain in Louisville. In 1920, Lee Porter Ray, then 28, worked as an embalmer at a funeral home owned by John H. Miller on Jefferson Street in Louisville.
Marian (Todd) Ray
Ray had other interests in his life, too. On November 17, 1921, at a ceremony in Lexington, he married Marian Lou Todd (1900-1979). The two had met, and after a short courtship, they agreed to marry. Shortly after his marriage, he began using the name L. Porter Ray for all his business. The young couple moved to Winchester, her hometown, where Ray worked for the Henry H. Hall Funeral Home and Furniture Company. His work took him to many communities across the states, and he was a frequent visitor to Jackson.
Soon, new opportunities would require Ray to make some difficult choices. While visiting Jackson, he noticed the lack of a “certified and trained undertaker” in the community. Most funerals were conducted in the home by a minister, with the coffin constructed by the family using traditional methods. No embalming was used for most burials; only the wealthiest had a “store-bought” casket rather than a coffin.
By 1924, he had decided to move to Jackson to start an “up-to-date undertaking establishment” in Jackson. Ray rented the Cole Building on College Avenue and set up shop. The Jackson Times welcomed Ray and his business to the community at the end of February. It announced that the Ray Funeral Home would be “installing the most up-to-date equipment, which will include a complete line of caskets, coffins, burial robes, and vaults, as well as a motor ambulance which will enable him to render services equaled only in the larger cities.”
The announcement of the open house for Lee Porter Ray’s Funeral Home ran on the front page of the March 21, 1924 edition of The Jackson Times.
Ray remodeled the Cole Building to suit his needs and announced that he planned to open his doors on March 15, 1924. Shipping delays pushed back the scheduled opening day. A new date was announced when his new embalmer was delivered and installed. Ray invited the public to inspect the new business to understand the method used by modern embalmers. The L. Porter Ray Funeral Parlor held a special open house on Saturday, March 22, 1924, and invited everyone to visit.
Advertisement from The Jackson Times on October 17, 1924, page 7.
William E. “Bill” Blake
Over the next few years, L. Porter Ray operated his embalming and funerary business with great success, but the competition in Jackson was stiff.
On September 1, 1936, L. Porter Ray partnered with a rival funeral director. William E. Blake, son of long-time Jackson businessman Jerry Robert Blake, started his funeral home in Jackson in 1924. Ray & Blake, as the new firm was styled, moved their operations into the larger and recently remodeled Blake Funeral Home on the corner of College Avenue and Court Streets.
Porter Ray was very active in local politics and community organizations. He served on the Board of the Methodist Church, taught Sunday school, was a member of the Breathitt Masonic Lodge #649, the Rhoda May Council #164 of the United American Mechanics, and was very active in the American Legion.
Ray joined and was active in the Kentucky Funeral Directors Association (KFDA). He was soon elected to several offices in the organization and rose quickly in its ranks. By 1940, the KFDA elected Ray as its president. The Jackson Times announced Ray’s election on the front page of its June 20, 1940 edition.
STATE FUNERAL DIRECTORS ELECT RAY PRESIDENT
Senior Member of Ray and Blake Will Attend National Convention
LOCATED HERE IN 1924
L. Porter Ray, senior member of the firm of Roy & Blake, local undertakers, was elected President of the Kentucky Funeral Directors Association at the annual State convention held in Louisville last week.
The Danville News-Messenger printed the Associated Press article about Ray’s election.
Mr. Ray, who us a native of Mason County, moved to Jackson in 1924 and for t welve years operated the Ray Undertaking establishment. Four years ago, he and W. E. Blake, local undertaker, formed a partnership and since that time have been connected in the business.
Mr. Ray is a World War veteran and after the war was located in Louisville for some time, later moving to Winchester where he practiced his profession until coining to Jackson. He is a graduate of Hohenschuh-Carpenter College of Embalming.
Three years ago, Mr. Ray was elected Sergent-At-Arms of the State Association of Funeral Directors, later serving as second vice-president and last year as first vice-president of the State body. He was a delegate from Kentucky to the National Convention of Funeral Directors at Oklahoma City. Oklahoma last year and has been named as delegate to the National Funeral Directors Association for the annual convention to be held in San Francisco, California in October, this year.
Mr. Ray is a member of the Masonic Lodge and Junior Order United American Mechanics and is a member of the Board of Stewards of the Methodist Church and is active in the civic affairs of this city.
Lee Porter Ray’s World War II Registration papers. He was not called to serve due to his age.
The Jackson Times, May 8, 1958, page 1.
L. Porter Ray continued his undertaking business until May 1, 1958, when he and W. E. Blake dissolved their partnership and retired. Their remaining stock of caskets, funeral equipment, embalming supplies, and vehicles were purchased and transferred to James Heston and Frank Fletcher, owners of Breathitt Funeral Home.
Ray stayed in Jackson for some time following his retirement, but several health issues forced a move to Winchester to be closer to his doctors and family. Bored, Ray worked part-time at the Scobee Funeral Home in Winchester from 1958 until 1962 to “stay active” and “be out among people.”
On June 4, 1963, just before his full retirement, the Kentucky Funeral Directors Association awarded Ray their Golden Distinguished Service Award for his fifty years of service as a Kentucky funeral director and embalmer.
One of Jackson’s early funeral directors died on October 7, 1970, at the Glenway Lodge, a retirement home in Winchester. He was 79. Funeral services were held at the Scobee Funeral Home, and Ray was buried in the Winchester Cemetery.
Lee Porter Ray and Marian (Todd) Ray’s tombstone at the Winchester Cemetery. – Source
Few Jackson residents remember Lee Porter Ray and the many ways he served the Jackson community. He moved from Jackson, and that created a separation. When he died in 1970, The Jackson Times did not write an obituary for Ray. The editor chose simply to reprint the single column from The Winchester Sun. There are some who remember the Ray & Blake Funeral Home, but few remember the man of service for which it was named.
Bookie on the Trail 