Sylvia Frazier Ray

Ray started her journalistic career at the age of 7 at the O-N-E with a column titled “My Cats”. A lifetime journalist, she was the managing editor at the O-N-E for 30 years and wrote a lifestyle column for the Hickory News. She won numerous North Carolina Associated Press awards during her tenure and acted as a role-model and mentor for many journalists in the south.

A memorial service will be held at 6 p.m. Friday June 25 at Trinity Baptist Church in Newton, where she was a long-time member. The service will be conducted by the Rev. Brant Hoots and Rev. Andrew Barrett. Interment will be in Eastview Cemetery in Newton.

Honorary pallbearers for the service will be the members of the Historical Association of Catawba County Board.

The family will receive friends Friday, June 25 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church.

In Lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 328 N Arthur Ashe Boulevard, Richmond, VA 23220.

Ray was active in her community as a local historian throughout her life. She authored several booklets of local history and collaborated with Dr. Gary R. Freeze on his three volumes of county history, The Catawbans, and his history of The City of Newton, She Is Not Yet Finished. Ray also consultant on local TV history documentaries; author of numerous magazine and newspaper special projects on local as well as regional history. She added commentary to recently published book Newton: Then and Now, a reflection on her hometown that she loved dearly. At the time of her death, Ray was completing a written history, Law and Order: The Sheriffs of Catawba County, North Carolina, with her son Yerby which chronicles all of the Sheriffs elected to office and some of the major crimes that they worked.

In 2014 Ray was bestowed The Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Governor Pat McCrory for her community and civic work.

In 2017 she was awarded the Spirit Award by the Catawba County Commissioners for her contributions to the county, and in 2016 she was given the “Key to the City” by the Conover City Council for her service over the years to their community.

Ray served 2 four-year terms (1992-2001) on North Carolina Executive Mansion Fine Arts Committee on appointment by Governors Jim Hunt and Mike Easley. In 1995 she was named Catawba County Business Woman of the Year.

Because of her philanthropic work in local and regional history, Ray was awarded the rank of Kentucky Colonel in 2005.

A graduate of Newton-Conover High School, Ray attended Limestone College, Gaffney SC and obtained a BA degree magna cum laude from Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory NC.

In addition to her long running journalism career, Ray periodically taught English at Bandys, Maiden, and Newton-Conover High Schools.

Over the decades since that time Ray was active in community, church, and political affairs. She was a former president of the Catawba County chapter of United Daughters of the Confederacy and a former state officer in the organization. She held honorary life memberships in the Garden Club of North Carolina, Delta Kappa Gamma women educators’ international society, and the Newton-Conover Rotary Club.

In 1991 Ray debuted her acting skills alongside the Oscar winning actress Reese Witherspoon in the movie Wildflower that was shot on location in Catawba county and directed by Diane Keaton.

In 2005, Ray spearheaded the city of Newton Sesquicentennial events and acted as an advisor to Southern Living magazine on its article about the city’s sesquicentennial.

Born June 12,1937, she was the only child of Era Frazier Kidd and Luther “Luke” William Kidd. On June 16,1962, she was married to Ralph Lamar Ray of Newton, who preceded her in death April 30, 2001.

Surviving are her two sons and daughters-in-law, Luther and Kim Ray; Ralph Yerby and Teasa Ray; two grandsons, Luke and James Ray; two granddaughters, Carson and Harper Ray, and several great-grand-children.

The Ray family has entrusted funeral arrangements to Willis-Reynolds Funeral Home and Cremations in Newton.

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