Ray graduated from South Park High School and Lamar University in Beaumont. He was in the Army and fought oversees during the Vietnam war. Ray worked for most of his career at the Chocolate Bayou and Cedar Bayou Chemical Plants owned by Amoco/BP/INEOS. He was a member of the Eastside Church of Christ in Baytown.
He was preceded in death by his parents, James Ball and Edna (Allen) Stidham and his granddaughter, Isabella Rae Byington.
Ray loved the outdoors—hunting, fishing and plinking and he was still a shade tree auto mechanic up until recent months.
Survivors include his wife Rita Ball, daughter Sarah Byington, her husband Brad and grandson Brayden Byington, son Brian Ball and his wife Jaime and granddaughters Rowan & Violet Ball, brother Arthur Kinney and his wife Gay Lynne and their children Theresa & Matthew, sister Mary Kinney and her daughter Andreanna. The family offers special thanks to Joanne Beharry for her recent, calm caregiving to Ray.
Visitation will be held on Friday, July 19, 2019 from 5 to 7pm at Navarre Funeral Home, 2444 Rollingbrook Dr., Baytown, Texas. Funeral Services will also be held on Saturday, July 20, 2019 at 12pm at Navarre Funeral Home in Baytown, Texas, with interment following at Grand View Cemetery in Pasadena, Texas.
