Olive Frances Ray, 99 year old Vici, OK resident, went to be with her Lord Jesus on July 21, 2015. Olive, and her twin brother Orval, were born four miles southwest of Vici on the family farm April 18, 1916, to Charles C. and Martha Adeline (Fuqua) Stewart. She helped with all the family farm chores until she married and left home to start her own family. Olive attended Banner School through the eighth grade and then Vici High, graduating with the class of 1934. Olive received Jesus as her Savior in 1930, and was baptized in Little Pound and is currently a member of the Vici First United Methodist Church. Olive married Eldred Orlan Ray on June 2, 1934, and they made their home in Vici until 1936, when they moved to a farm northwest of town. This was during the dust bowl days when farming wasn’t a productive living, so in August of 1936, they moved to Enid and when they arrived there the thermometer read 118 degrees! One son, Stewart, was born while they lived in Enid, and soon after, the family returned to live in the town of Vici. Olive was the bookkeeper for the family business of Magnolia Oil for several years. One daughter, Judy, was born during this time. In 1949, the family moved back to the farm to stay, running a dairy, raising hogs and chickens and big vegetable gardens. During the 1950's, they started bottling and delivering raw milk and cream to customers in town. Olive made cottage cheese and dressed hens for them also. Eldred and the kids made the deliveries while Olive stayed home and did the cleaning up and other chores. It was a family affair, feeding the baby calves and the hogs, milking the cows and tending the garden, but as all worked together to make a living, it was a joyous time. When the kids were raised and off on their own, Olive took a job as a cook at the Vici School lunch room for five years. She then went to work at the Vici Nursing Home as a cook, then as a Nurse's Aide and a Medical Nurse. When she had an injury to her shoulder she had to quit nursing, but that wasn't to deter her from working, she then helped in the laundry room until her retirement in October of 1984. Olive's "retirement" consisted of doing volunteer work at the Senior Citizens Center, being active in the Methodist Church and Dewey County Historical Society and keeping up with school activities. She enjoyed doing her own yard work and raising a garden. God blessed Olive with a compassionate heart and she used her gift as a caregiver. She was a caregiver not only to her own family, but also sitting with extended family and friends during terminal illnesses. Olive traveled most of the United States and southern Canada. She saw many beautiful sites from riding in a boat under Niagara Falls to wading in the Gulf of Mexico. Olive and Eldred worked hard to raise their family, but they enjoyed life also.

Olive was preceded in death by her parents Charles and Martha Stewart, husband Eldred Ray, grandson Dennis Ray, and siblings Ethel Turner, Elsie Turner Fuqua, Ross Stewart, and twin Orval Stewart.

She is survived by her son Stewart Ray and wife Joan of Sharon, OK; daughter Judy Grace and husband Bud of Gage, OK; grandchildren Sandra Koehn, Sherrie Benson, Shelly Palacios, Dee Dee Ogden, Tammy Arbgast, E. L. Grace and Mike Grace; eighteen great-grandchildren; eight great-great-grandchildren.

Shaw & Redinger Funeral Service
500 South Main P.O. Box 276
Vici, Oklahoma 73859
(580) 995-4465