Ray Danielson

He graduated from Riverdale High School in 1952. He was drafted to the Army during the Korean War. He served from 1953 to 1955 spending time in California, Hawaii, Japan and Korea. He attended College of Sequoias for 2 years. He met his future wife while driving the bus for College of Sequoias. For two summers he worked for the Department of Interior on the Blister Rust Control team in the high elevations of the back country of the Sierra Nevada mountains. He attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo for 2 years, majoring in Dairy Husbandry.

His father had started Danielson's Hardware in 1948. Ray had been working in his father's store in the summers during college, but in 1961 he started working full-time for his father, eventually becoming partner and then full owner of Danielson's Hardware. Eventually his sons David & Alan joined him in the store. Ray retired after he had a heart attack on his 65th birthday and required a quadruple bypass. Even though he was retired, he still helped out for several years making deliveries and picking up orders. In his retirement years, he took up golfing as a fun way to get some exercise. He also volunteered at the Adventist Health Hospital for 14 years where he was known as "The Hugger".

He married Marian Stout on November 27, 1959. Initially they lived in Fresno while Marian finished her degree at Fresno State, then they moved to Armona when he started working full-time at Danielson's Hardware. They had 3 children who attended Hanford Christian School and Immanuel High School. Their two sons married and gave them 5 grandchildren. They had been married for 46 years when Marian died in December 2005.

Ray loved camping every summer with his family in Kings Canyon National Park. He loved his precious persimmon tree. He would share the fruit with others and make persimmon cookies, persimmon pudding and persimmon chips (dehydrated slices). He also enjoyed making strawberry freezer jam and squeezing pomegranates to get the juice to make pomegranate jelly. Most Saturday mornings you could find him making buttermilk pancakes or waffles for his grandchildren. He also loved his honey, eating it with cereal or on toast or stirring it into peanut butter. He enjoyed taking his family out for dinner nearly every Saturday night. After his children were grown, he started traveling with his wife. After his wife died, he started spending the summers and some holidays with his daughter Sharon. Together they traveled the world visiting Australia, New Zealand, several countries in Europe, most of the provinces in Canada and finished seeing all 50 states. For several summers, he took turns taking two of his grandchildren at a time on road trips with Sharon throughout California and Oregon. In his free time, he enjoyed putting puzzles together, watching Westerns on TV and playing computer games.

Ray was a member of the First Christian Reformed Church in Hanford where he enjoyed singing in the choir and serving as a deacon and elder. He loved talking to people and especially sought out the new people to make them feel welcome. He even did that when visiting his daughter's church in Texas.

After suffering for about a month, he was just diagnosed with cancer a week before his death. The best part about his stay in the hospital was all the hugs from the nurses, volunteers and cleaning ladies that he had known while volunteering at the hospital. He was able to go home to his house in Armona for his final days on earth. He was at peace knowing he was in God's hands. Ray went home to his Lord & Savior on July 4th after seeing all of his family and watching part of Jeopardy, one of his favorite shows.

Ray was preceded in his death by his sister Nola Basey, his parents Ray & Edna Danielson and his wife Marian Danielson.

Ray is survived by his daughter Sharon Danielson of Plano TX, his son David Danielson and his wife Kim of Hanford CA, his son Alan Danielson and his wife Samantha of Armona CA; and his grandchildren Dane Danielson of Armona, Adam Danielson of Hanford, Caleb Danielson and his wife Liz of Paris TX, Kyla Danielson of Hanford and Conrad Danielson of Hanford, CA.