Ray Burton Williams

Ray Burton Williams, second of the four children of Alice Branson and John Henry Williams, was born 22 November 1907 at Mt. Bullion, Mariposa County, CA, where his father worked as a miner. The family remained at Mt. Bullion for another few years. Ray’s sister Ruth was born there in 1911, but by the birth of younger sister Frances in late 1914, mining had ceased to be a viable occupation and John had become a farmer in the area around Manteca, CA -- which meant that Ray came of age in a corner of San Joaquin County where many of his mother’s aunts, uncles, and first cousins dwelled.

Ray probably attended Manteca High School, though a daughter reports he went to a high school in Stockton. Perhaps both scenarios are correct. There is a significant chance Ray’s high school years were interrupted and when he did go back to try for a diploma, it was in Stockton. The interruption would have stemmed from the death of Ray’s father when Ray was only fifteen years old. Ray, along with his older brother Vernon, was probably called upon to help keep the Manteca farm going. The boys would have had the help of their uncle Hugh Branson maintaining that acreage, but perhaps even that was not enough to keep them in school.

In 1928, Alice married long-time neighbor Milton James Henry and moved to his farm, taking along Frances. Ray, Vernon, and Ruth were old enough that if they had not already moved out by then, did so at that point. Likewise, M.J.’s two children by his first wife were grown and were independent.

Though Manteca remained Ray’s official home well into the 1930s, he does not seem to have been entirely at ease while he was there. Perhaps he did not feel comfortable lingering on the scene with M.J. Henry as a stepfather, though M.J. is remembered by various family members as a nice guy, or perhaps Ray felt he didn’t measure up to the standard of his successful stepbrother, dentist Lloyd Henry. Whatever the issue was, Ray tended not to be heavily involved in his mother’s life over the remaining decades of her life. Ray’s children would grow up knowing their grandmother so dimly they were unwilling to be left overnight at her house because she was such a stranger to them. From his mid-twenties onward, Ray was usually to be found at places quite some distance from Manteca, kicking around at different jobs in different places, not just in California but in Texas and Mexico.

By the later years of the Great Depression, Ray’s wanderings brought him to Woodland, Yolo County, CA. He may have been drawn there simply due to employment considerations. The area was where Spreckels Sugar Company, a key employer of much of the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta region, had its main beet fields. Many a Manteca man worked for Spreckels during the middle decades of the Twentieth Century. However, the lure may have -- at least at first -- been family connections. Ray’s second cousin Wanda Salmon Patrie, just two days younger than he, and one of the relatives who had been a neighbor and classmate of his while growing up, had established herself in Yolo County with husband Charles Patrie. Likewise, Wanda’s younger brother Jack Wesley Salmon and his wife were now living in Woodland. Either Wanda or Jack (or both) would have been delighted to put in a good word with Speckels and help Ray to be hired. Whether Ray had such a boost or not, he became a Speckels warehouse foreman.

As America continued to be involved in World War II, Ray decided to join the U.S. Army. He enlisted 27 May 1943 and soon was serving in the Pacific. However, by the time he reported for duty, he was a married man. Two days after his enlistment, on 29 May 1943, he married Leona Elizabeth Lorenz. Leona, daughter of Herman August Lorenz and Catherine Lammers, had been born 26 November 1910 in West Point, NE, and had been raised in that local area of Nebraska by her mother, who had been widowed when Leona was only a year old. Leona and her mother had moved to Woodland in 1939. Leona worked for the Woodland Daily Democrat newspaper.

Though Ray and Leona were not young when they became parents, they went on to have four children, whom they raised in Woodland. Ray was employed by Spreckels for over thirty years. While in Woodland, Ray was an active Catholic, belonging to Holy Rosary Parish and serving in the Knights of Columbus. In approximately 1990 the couple retired to Folsom, Sacramento County, CA. In Folsom, they belonged to St. John’s Parish.

Ray died 15 July 2005 at age ninety-seven. His death record shows Sacramento, CA as the venue, but this no doubt refers to the hospital where he expired. He and Leona were still residents of Folsom. She passed away in Folsom 13 February 2006.

Children of Ray Burton Williams with Leona Elizabeth Lorenz