RAYBURN LEO (SMILEY) KNIGHT: POST #18

I wonder where that Leo came from? I never did know. Anyway, on OCT. 28, 1936 he made his appearance into the Knight family, the fourth boy in a row. I would be boy number five a few years later and Barbara says that Mom probably wanted a girl so bad that she should have set me in the trash basket. But, Ray was number four. He was affectionately called "SMILEY in his high school and college days because he had a smile on his face almost constantly.

Since Ray was the closest one to me in age he was the one that I always tried to pattern my life after. I did a lot of the same things that he did and he had a pretty powerful influence over me. He used that power sometimes to my chagrin. It was a very cold, snowy, day when he needed to walk about two miles to see someone for something and he wanted me to go with him. I may have been younger but I wasn't stupid! I told him 'NO' a couple of times. I learned later that he went in the kitchen where Mom was and told her, "Watch me make him go with me." He came back to me in a minute and said, "I wouldn't let you go with me if you wanted to!" I didn't take the bait. So, he came across again with a little more fervor that I could not go with him for anything in the world. He said the wrong thing for me that time. I walked FOUR miles and nearly froze to death but I showed him!

I love to hear him tell today about Principal Arthur Cooper taking him to the 'sweat room' one time and threatening to thrash him for something. Ray had no idea why he was accusing him of something that he knew nothing about and continued to deny any guilt. Then, it hit him what was wrong and he told Mr. Cooper that it was me! Boy, I wish that Ray had gotten that whipping. Ray helped me out more than a lot of times. Older brother Harvel owned a service station at Truman and he always had a pocket full of change. I would get up very early sometimes and get me a few cents out of Harvel's pants and put them in my pants and then go back to bed. I knew that Harvel didn't know how much change he had and he wouldn't miss a few cents. One morning early I got up and got my stash for the day and put it in my pants. The next morning I walked to school, stopped in the 'the station' as we called it for a soda pop and a bag of peanuts and discovered that I had no money. What in the world had happened? I figured it out. I had put my money in the wrong pants. I went to Ray's class later in the day and asked the teacher if I could speak to my brother. Ray came out in the hall and I asked him to check and see if he had Twenty cents in his pocket. He did and he did! He gave me my money, didn't ask where I got it and never told on me because I think that he knew how I came by those two dimes. I quit stealing right then and asked Harvel for some money from then on and he would always give me some. Wonder why I didn't think of asking in the first place?

The best thing that Ray ever did for me happened when I enrolled at Harding College and he had already been there a couple of years. He was in the SUB-T 16 club and I wanted to join it. It was the most popular club for men on campus. The initiation was a bit tough in two or three ways. When you had to stand, bend over and hold your ankles, and let each member come by and hit you with a belt it was pretty awesome because some of those guys would nearly lift you off the floor. But, the one thing that challenged me more than any other was sucking a raw egg. I had never eaten an egg and still haven't. Mom said that when I was a baby and she would try to feed me an egg, cooked in any fashion, I would throw up! Now, here I am a big boy at Harding and I've got to suck a raw egg. Ray was the guy to hold the egg in my mouth and do you know what he did? He held his finger over that hole and I didn't have to suck that egg but nobody knew it. I sure was thankful for that.

Ray entered Harding College upon graduation from Bay High School and graduated from Harding in 1961. He joined General Electri Credit Corporation where he worked for 25 years.

Ray married Rachel Hamley in September 1968 in Laporte, Indiana and they live now in Nashville, Tennessee and are in poor health. The three remaining children, Terri, Todd, and Tammy live there and see after them. Their oldest son Tim died in a motorcycle accident in 1982 and that hurt me really bad because Tim was one of my favorite guys from the day that he was born. It's been good to visit in my memory back at Herman Junction today and all is well there still.

(Ray lost his beloved wife Rachel on September 11, 2009. She had suffered for a long time and battled courageously against several different health problems. We all miss her so very much.)

(Ray passed away on January 1, 2011 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville, Tenn. beside his beloved Rachel.)