Theodore Homer Raven

Ted lost his Mother when he was eight years old. Jacqueline was a kind and loving mother and it was a tragic loss. Ted's Aunt Vesta, his Mother's sister, stepped in and was a surrogate mother to Ted after his mother passed away.

Ted had a brother Jim and a sister Jacqueline who were from his mothers previous marriage.

Ted's love of cars and airplanes came from his Father. Ted's Father owned an auto mechanics shop and was a flight instructor.

Ted got his first car, an old Model A, at the age of 13....His Father had told him "If you can get it running then you can have it".

At the age of 17, Ted joined the Air Force...he had to tell them he was 18 to join. Ted served in the Air Force for four years.

Ted started racing cars and airplanes at an early age. He was always a daredevil and because he had lost his mom at such an early age he felt that life was not permanent, and since none of us knew how long we had ...he was going to make the most of the time he was here (and he did). In the 1970,s Ted was racing airplanes and in his very first air race he took took 1st place.

During the depression, Ted told us that his dad was considered well off; because he made $25.00 a week and they always had food on the table.

Ted met his first wife Sylvia, when he was 13 years old. Ted met Sylvia at the school they both attended and he remembered thinking she was "a real beauty". Ted introduced himself to Sylvia by knocking her school books out of her hands and running away (to get her attention). Ted and Sylvia were married when they were nineteen years old and they were blessed with two beautiful Daughters, Lori and Cher.

Ted broke his back, while horseback riding, when he was in his twenties and he had back pain throughout his life, as a result of the accident. You would never have known it though by the way he acted ....he was always such a "tough guy"...and worked through it .... He admitted on several occasions that he was a "stubborn old cuss"

Ted met his second wife, Anna, at Sana Paula airport where she was a waitress; they were blessed with two children David and Annette.

David and Annette can remember one of the times when they were little and their dad took them up in an airplane. Annette had fallen asleep and when she woke up the plane was upside down....her dad had thought it would be funny to do a "loop de loop" to wake her up.

In the mid-sixties Ted was offered a movie role that he turned down. Ted said I'm not an actor" and did not want to have anything to do with it.

Ted was a bit of a nomad, he had a wandering soul....he wanted to see the world, to find new places and meet new people. He was a fascinating man..., a kind and loving husband, father and grandfather, a good friend, and extremely generous with his time and his talents. He was always there if you needed a hand or just wanted someone to talk to.

Ted married his wife Sue in 1977, after a two month courtship, and meeting at his automotive repair shop. Ted inherited four Daughters with the marriage. He treated those four girls: Sherry, Kathy, Karen, and Kim, as if they were his own. After he proposed to Sue....he proposed to each one of her Daughters (on bended knee) and with a keepsake ring for each one of them to wear.

Ted joined the LDS church while married to his 2nd wife Anna. He held many different callings which included High priest group leader, ward mission leader, webelos leader in scouts. The last 4 years of his life he served in the family history library every Wednesday with Sue. . Sue and Ted also served a six month mission in Martins Cove Wyoming during their time together. He was a faithful tithe payer and took great comfort in knowing that he and Sue were sealed for time and all eternity in the San Diego temple.

Ted was a fixer and a builder. For his life work he had multiple careers which included: Aircraft mechanic, Aircraft mechanic foreman (at Lockheed for over 20 years) Auto mechanic with his own business, general contractor in which he built many homes, garage & room additions. Ted had a quick innovative mind that allowed him to build and modify almost anything. He built his own aircraft which he raced and won in the Reno air races in the sport by- plane division. He also was a Para legal (from the University of La Verne) and also had his Utah real estate license.

Ted was always a hard worker, always had a project and he had many hobbies that he enjoyed. Ted enjoyed Horseback riding, woodworking, riding motorcycles, sailing, hunting, he was an avid fisherman, loved golf, skiing, racing cars, and airplanes of course. He had a real love of all animals big and small and from one time to another he owned from "mice to mules. This included a rescue owl that he liked to watch go round and round on the ceiling fan. Ted also was an avid reader and loved to sit down and devour a good book "Louis Lamour", "Tom Clancy" and Thorne Smith were many of his favorites.

Ted was blessed with a family that adored him. He was a strong and virile man, with an adventurous soul, he lived life to the fullest...always on his terms ....he was always a fighter and forever pushing his limits. Quoting Teds own words from his life story. "As I sit and think over my life and all the good and bad things that have happened to me all I can say is I'm a very lucky person, who fell into a lot of poop and came out smelling like a rose. Well maybe tomorrow I can come and sit by my favorite spot and just be glad I didn't wake up to find a toe tag attached to me and relive my most favorite parts of my mortal existence here on earth."

Ted put together a book of stories from his childhood and some of his adventures ....his family would like to share one of his adventures from when he was eleven years old (in Ted's own words).....

Before Papa and myself left Lompoc, and just at the start of the summer in 1942, my buddies and I got this idea that we should become PIRATES, just like Tom Sawyer and old Huck Finn. We had a great river nearby (at that time the Santa Ynez River flowed year round), where we could put in with the pirate ship and float down the river to Surf where it met with the Pacific Ocean. Hey, we could have our own Mississippi River and our own adventures, boy did we find adventure.

We knew of an old barn that had been torn down and there would be plenty of wood and roofing materials to construct our great ship to sail the mighty oceans of the world. It took a couple of days to pilfer the materials, but there we were our crew of four. I was the Captain, because I said so and it was my idea. Jim Pennington was second in command. Donald Pennington was in charge of our gunnery(we had one old rifle that was so rusted hat it couldn't fire even if you wanted to shoot it). Rudy Escavedo was in charge of the food (his mother made the best tortillas there ever were).

We had hard tack and rum for our trip (Nehi cream soda and stale crackers). It took us about a week to build it but when we were done ....what a beauty she was! There was a small cabin on the foredeck and a rudder to steer her. A tall mast, where our Jolly Roger flew. Yes sir, she was altogether. THAT WAS THE PROBLEM! We built her about 3 miles from the river with no way to get it to the river. After much debate we had a brilliant idea! We would take four toy wagons, put one on each corner, then tow her with our bikes. Rudy procured four wagons but they were all different sizes. We were not able to tow it with our bikes so we ended up pushing and pulling and cussing up a storm. We finally made it to the Ocean Street Bridge. Finally , we were about to become "The Terror of all the Seas". We decided it would be a good idea to return the wagons to their owners, and that tomorrow we would start being the "Demons of the Seven Seas". On our way back into town a policeman saw us with the four wagons (that had been reported as stolen). After the ride to the station, we were put in a cell for a long time, and we were scared to death. The policeman told us that they were not going to let us go until the next day, when they would be contacting our parents to tell them what had happened, and how long we would have to spend in jail. Well I can tell you...that was not good. I knew what my dad would do to me.

The guys and I talked about it on the way home and decided we would run away the next day. We gathered clothes and the things that we needed that night at home. The next morning we left, after naming our ship "The Escape". Little did we know........We had enough food to last til we could find the first ship we could, and take our "Prizes of War". We were free to roam the Pacific and plunder all the ships of the sea. But first we decided to put ashore and repair all the leaks that we had. A very bad start to our becoming the "fiercest and meanest pirates" in all the known world. We baled and baled but the water was coming in faster then we could bail. We were forced to "put in". We knew there was a farm about a half mile from where we were.

We planned our attack and who was to do what. While Jim and I would search the barn, Don and Rudy would keep the lady of the house busy by talking to her. We lucked out and found a half can of roofing tar. When Jim and I escaped with the tar, and felt safe, we gave our secret whistle a good blow to let the others know we were clear. (our secret whistle was one we got for five boxtops from Wheaties, our very own Lone Ranger whistle). We went back to the river to repair our leaky ship (I think we got more tar on us though then we did the ship). What a mess we were with no way to get the tar off.

The next day after a good breakfast of hard tack and rum (stale crackers and soda) we pushed off. We had let the tar dry overnight and our leaks were down to slow seepages.

I believe that I omitted some vital information at the beginning of this tale of woe... The year was 1942, we were at war with Germany and Japan, and everyone was worried that spies might enter our country and try to sabotage our defenses. We did not expect, that after the river made a wide turn, part of it ran thru Camp Cook, a new Army base that was training our troops for war.

As we came around the bend, we could see two army jeeps and four big M.P.'s waiting for us, they made us pull out of the river and surrender our boat to them. They took us to the command post and put us in a wire cage so we could sweat it our for awhile. The told us this was the holding cell for spies and that they would be back to interrogate us. They also told us we would be turned over to the FBI for trespassing on government property. (only 3 more miles to go and we would have made it to the briny seas). We now knew we were in DEEP trouble. We now knew we were in trouble with the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR TREASON OR SOMETHING EQUALLY AS BAD we thought we might even have to face a FIRING SQUAD...

The Military Police called our parents and the local police to let them know we were safe. We had only been gone for 3 days......all we could think about was about the red butts we were going to have. When the police came to take us back to town, as we were driving away, we could hear the M.P.'s laughing at us.

We were released that day to our parents and the next day we compared our bruised butts and "butt welts".... that was the end of our pirate life.....and as for our raft ....it could still be rotting on the banks of the Santa Ynez River.....