Helen was born on May 30, 1927, in Roscoe, Texas. She was the fourth child, and firstborn daughter, of Charlie Henry Rabbe and Ida Teggemann Rabbe. A lifelong Lutheran, Helen was baptized July 31, 1927, at St. Johannes Evangelical Lutheran Church in New Bern, Williamson County, Texas and was confirmed with her sister, Ida Rabbe Wulf, on November 3, 1946, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Shive, Texas. She graduated from Shive High School. Following high school, Helen worked as a waitress for City Café, a restaurant on the square in Hamilton, owned by her parents, and later worked as a secretary for the Borden company in Houston. While working at City Café, she met Lewis Edward Ray, Jr., a WW2 veteran, and a teacher and coach in Hamilton. Lewis and Helen were married on June 11, 1960, and moved to Houston, where Lewis began a 32-year career with the Galena Park School District. Helen also worked for Galena Park ISD from approximately 1973 until her retirement in 1993, first as an Administrative Clerk at North Shore High School, then in the GPISD Tax Office, where her attention to detail was greatly appreciated. She and Lewis were active members of Sharon Evangelical Lutheran Church (later Peace Lutheran) in Pasadena, Texas, and even while working full-time, she continued to support the schools and her daughters by selling football tickets at the high-school games, following “the team” as her daughters, and later her grandchildren, played sports or were involved in other events, sewing clothes for her daughters, and later, her grandchildren, decorating birthday cakes and baking meals and bread for family events, and generally being willing to help her family with whatever they needed, whenever they called. She was there. Her family – parents, husband, daughters, grandchildren, sisters, and brothers - always came first.
Helen and Lewis returned to Hamilton in 1996, building their retirement home at the edge of town, and joined Trinity Lutheran Church in Pottsville, Texas, a church that her father had helped build. Helen was proud of her home and was happy living back in Hamilton.
Helen Ray is survived by her three daughters, Stacy Ray Allensworth (and her husband Wayne), Kimberly Ray, and Sharla Ray Knopp (and her husband, John), three grandchildren, Elizabeth Allensworth Merino (and her husband, DJ), Rachel Allensworth, and Matthew Allensworth, along with two great-granddaughters, Amelie Merino and Eloise Merino. She is also survived by her youngest sister, Frances Rabbe, and Lewis’s sisters, Mozelle Ray Chaney and Becky Jo Ray Harper (and her husband John), and by a multitude of nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Lewis Edward Ray, Jr., her parents, Charlie and Ida Teggemann Rabbe, her three brothers, Charlie Rabbe, Walter Rabbe, and Gilbert Rabbe and his wife, Hazel Rabbe, and two sisters, Ida Rabbe Wulf, and her husband Ewald Wulf, and Dorothy Rosalie Rabbe, who died in infancy.
Family and friends are invited to attend the visitation on Sunday, February 6, 2022, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., and the funeral service at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, February 7, 2022, at Riley Funeral Home in Hamilton, Texas. A graveside service at the IOOF cemetery in Hamilton will immediately follow the funeral service. Following the graveside service, the Women’s Group of Trinity Lutheran Church of Pottsville will be serving a late lunch at the Methodist Church in Hamilton. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Trinity Lutheran Church, 11860 F.M. 218W, Pottsville, Texas 76565.
Helen’s family is especially grateful for Kimberly, who selflessly lived with mom as her primary caregiver for the past four years, and would like to thank Angelia Howard Carrigan and Aubrey Williams for their care and devotion to mom, and Solaris Hospice for their assistance and support.
