Lucinda Lee Cray

She was born in Muncie on August 2, 1954, to Frank and Nancy (Snyder) Cray, and she never lived anywhere else. She graduated from Muncie Central High School and attended Ball State University.

She loved to travel, and Disney World was her favorite place on earth. When Jason was young, the two of them went every other Christmas. She was happiest there. Something about it handed her back a piece of being a kid. The trips came less often as the years went on, but she never stopped loving it.

Cindy worked for many years at the Ball State bookstore, and spent the last eleven years of her working life as a fabrics associate at Walmart. Her coworkers liked her and looked out for her. They will also tell you she almost never talked about herself. The one exception was her grandson. She would talk about him to anyone who would listen.

Her family was where she put everything she had. She came to Jason and Donna's house every Thursday and Friday, and everyone there knew who she was really coming to see. Michael would hear the door and yell “Mamaw's here,” then come running to hug her. She called him Peanut.

Not one thing he did went unwatched. Every baseball tryout, every game, every karate tournament, every belt promotion. Regular weeknight karate classes, too, just so she could sit and watch him. There were fishing trips, the driving range, the batting cages, and afternoons at putt putt. When he was little and needed someone to lie down with him at bedtime, if Mamaw was in the house, nobody else would do. She let him drag her down to the basement for nerf gun battles, and she never once told him no. At the ballfield and at the karate school, everybody knew whose Mamaw she was.

He teased her and she loved it. Every so often he called her Chocolate Cupcake. That came from a karate tournament where she got so frustrated with him for not listening that she announced he was not getting a cupcake, then turned back around half a minute later and asked him what kind he wanted.

She was proud of her son and she made sure he knew it, in words, often. She was there when he and Michael earned their black belts. She was amazed when he published his book, and amazed again each time his career took another step, even when she did not entirely understand what he did for a living. She did not need to understand it. She was happy for him, and she said so.

She loved Donna like her own daughter. Jason was her only son, and she did not hand him over lightly, but Donna won her completely. She valued Donna's judgment and asked for it often. Mostly she just liked being around her.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Nancy Cray, and by her dog Cody, her companion of fifteen years.

She is survived by her son, Jason Cray, and his wife, Donna, of Yorktown; her grandson, Michael, the great love of her life; her brother, Randy Cray, and his wife, Patty, of Stevens Point, Wisconsin; and Jason and Donna's dogs, Peanut and Butter, who she spoiled the same as everybody else. She is also survived by Bill and Sandy Frederick and Stacy Frederick, family by marriage and family in every way that counted.

Family and friends may visit from 12:00 PM until 1:00 PM, Thursday, September 17, 2026, at Elm Ridge Funeral Home, 4600 West Kilgore Avenue, Muncie, Indiana, 47304. A funeral service to honor her life will begin at 1:00 PM. Burial will follow in Elm Ridge Memorial Park.

She will be missed every Thursday and Friday, and every day in between