Obituary of C. Ray Hall

C. Ray Hall, age 96, died Saturday, February 21, 2015. He was born on January 22, 1919 at Broken Bow, OK, to Sam and Mattie Orr Hall, he had three brothers and two sisters. In December 1932, his family moved to a farm near Idabel, Oklahoma where he was graduated from high school in 1936 at age 17. Ray served in the U.S. Navy from 1936 to 1940, serving aboard a heavy cruiser, a destroyer and a destroyer tender. After the Navy he worked as a full time night clerk for the Federal Bureau of Investigation while attending Southern Methodist University during the day. He completed a BBA in finance and accounting in December, 1942. Ray then became a Special Agent for the FBI and worked in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, New York City, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Texas, serving in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. When Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the FBI to have an agent interview Ruby immediately, and Ray was selected to do that interview. He retired from the FBI after 30 years of service, then worked as Dallas Division Security Manager for Safeway Stores. Ray was a member of a Masonic Lodge in Idabel, the Scottish Rite Consistory and the Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Ray married Ann Rachel, a high school classmate in 1941 and they were married for 64 years until her death in 2005. Survivors are sons Thomas R. Hall and wife Raguet, and Dan R. Hall; granddaughter Rachel Laura Hall Causey and husband, Larry Causey; great grandchildren Lilian Grace and James David Causey; and grandson Michael Nicholas Broderick. Memorials may be made to the Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, TX. A Memorial Service will be held at Wilshire Baptist Church, Friday, February 27, 2015 at 2:00 pm. Graveside services with Masonic rites will be held at 1:00 pm on Saturday, February 28, 2015 at the Denison Cemetery in Idabel, OK.