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This week’s Passing Parade picture is of my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Riley Gray, at their home on Gray Lane. Mr. Gray owned about 1000 acres from Park City to the Elk River. His father was Oliver Perry Gray who married Elizabeth Belle Smith. He had one brother, Edgar Gray, who died with tuberculosis in 1922. Riley Gray’s grandfather was Rev. Jacob Gray who preached at the Liberty Baptist church of Christ and at Prospect Baptist Church of Christ. Rev. Jacob Gray was a Confederate veteran. His wife, Amanda Ross Gray died when he was in the Army and left three sons to carry on. Their aunt, Celia Ross, went to get them on horseback to take care of them. The Yankees had visited the Gray home and burned the Gray house to the ground. |
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After the Civil War, Jacob Gray came home to his family near Attalla, AL. He married again and the three sons left home. Oliver Perry Gray and Pink Gray came to Lincoln County, TN, to their uncle, Tom Burgess. Rev. Jacob Gray came and lived in the Liberty Community where he preached at Liberty and Prospect. He later preached back in Alabama and he is buried in Lee Cemetery in Etowah County, AL. His log church at Prospect was moved to Gray Lane and is the property of Pet Hereford Webb.
At the spot where Riley and Oma Gray are sitting, their grandsons Kenny Hereford came often to study the stars in the sky with Bob Allen Gray. They learned much about the stars. My father told us what the Seven Sisters and The Big Dipper were.
The children of Riley Gray are: Howard Gray, elder at Liberty Church of Christ; Lizzie Mae Gray lived most of her adult life in Nashville and worked in the Income Tax Dept; Nell Gray taught school at Liberty, Flintville and Mary’s Grove, was a LPN at the hospital and worked at Kay Dept. Store; Jimbo Gray was a federal meat inspector; Bob Allen Gray was LPN and wrote news columns for many papers including YOUR COMMUNITY SHOPPER in Ardmore; Leland Gray was a mail carrier.
Riley and Oma Gray are now buried in Stewart Cemetery in Lincoln County.
