Terry Dray dies

I got this sad, sad email from Cecily Dray, Terry Dray's wife:

John, Terry died about 4 a.m. this morning.

I called 911 when he developed severe stomach pains and was sweating. He was having a lot of difficulty breathing so they put him on a C-PAP while they did a CT scan which showed fluid in his belly. When his breathing didn't improve (he had COPD) they decided to intubate him and when they did that his BP dropped to 42 over 33 and he had a major heart attack.

They rushed him to the cardio lab to do a heart cath but he had no pulse. They put in a defibrilator and did CPR for 45 minutes but couldn't bring him back. They are doing an autopsy because they feel the heart attack was secondary to something else.

Please notify everyone who needs notified at the Beacon.

Cecily

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Terry was one of the good guys in my life. When Bob Giles and Al Fitzpatrick "encouraged" me to leave the Beacon and I became the makeup man for the copy desk, Terry and Red Reeves came to me and said simply, "We'll take care of you." And they did.

Whenever I was the makeup man for the Sunday BJ, we rarely went in late for the editions we put out on Saturday nights. When I was not the makeup man, the BJ often went in late. After a few years of that, Giles and Fitzpatrick decided that I had been "a round peg in a square hole" and my rehabilitation was considered complete.

My late wife Monia and later Paula and I would have reunions with Terry and Cecily during our February stays on Siesta Key. Terry and Cecily lived in Avon Park and drove about 90 minutes each way for the get-togethers, which consisted of sitting on the deck overlooking the beach and recalling our BJ days together. Dave and Gina White, and Don Bandy, would join us.

Terry had been undergoing chemo treatments most of this year for cancer. He had successfully battled it years ago.

The Drays endured hurricanes (3 of 4 affected Avon Park in one season), but Terry once played golf 9 times a week -- every day and twice on Saturdays and Sundays -- near their Avon Park, Florida home. Cecily said she "played at it" 3 days a week. They bought the house to spent 4 or 5 months in it, then rent out to golfers from the north the rest of the year, but liked the area so well that they moved from Massillon and lived in it year-round themselves. They turned their Massillon sporting goods store over to their daughters and enjoyed the Sunshine State and picking oranges from the tree in their yard.

The Dray address is 107 E Wolf Street in Avon Park, FL 33825 if you want to send Cecily a card. If you want the Dray home phone number, call my cellphone at (330) 388-4466 and I'll give it to you.

For photos of Terry during his visits to Siesta Key, click on the headline.