Mrs. Julia P. Greenlee Ray

The Urban News is pleased to profile an outstanding businesswoman, civic leader, matriarch, and Asheville icon—centenarian Julia G. Ray.

Mrs. Julia G. Ray is a treasured business and civic pioneer in the Asheville community. Nearly two years ago, on October 28, 2021, her 107th birthday, she was honored by the City of Asheville with the proclamation of an official “Julia G. Ray Day.” Ms. Ray will celebrate her 109th birthday on October, 28, 2023.

Julia P. Greenlee Ray was born in McDowell County (Marion), and after high school was educated at Barber-Scotia College and the University of Pittsburgh, PA. She and her husband, Jesse G. Ray Sr., whom she married in 1935, both graduated from Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Chicago. A year after their first child, Wilma, was born, they established the Jesse Ray Funeral Home at 267 College Street in Asheville.

Husband and wife were both influential members of the business community in Asheville’s Eagle Street business district, where in 1938 they operated a dry-cleaners and a funeral home that has served the African American community for more than eighty years. The funeral home is still operated by their son, Jesse G. Ray, Jr.

Mrs. Ray was a founding member of the Goombay Festival on The Block of downtown Asheville. In 2003, the YMI renamed its auditorium the Ray Auditorium in recognition of Rays’ service to the community. She was also the first African American to serve on the Boards of Trustees of the Asheville YWCA, Mission Hospital (now HCA-Mission), and the University of North Carolina Asheville, from which she received an honorary doctorate in 2018. The school also grants a family-endowed scholarship in her honor.

Also at the university, Mrs. Ray served on the first Advocacy Board of the NC Center for Creative Retirement at UNCA (now OLLI), and in November 2022, UNC Asheville renamed a dormitory, Ray Hall (formerly Hoey Hall) in her honor.

Mrs. Ray lives in Asheville with the oldest of her four children, Wilma Ray Bledsoe, a retired vice president of Oakland University in Michigan. Her three sons, Jesse, William, and Charles, all continue in their own successful business careers.

Despite the many notable accomplishments in Julia Ray’s life, she remains a modest, even humble lady. She still enjoys the wonders of nature and bird watching, and, as an accomplished craftswoman in professional picture framing, needlepoint, pottery, and tie-dying, her crafts are displayed in her home and the homes of her four children.

In reflection, her son, Jesse Ray, Jr. shared, “We are happy to recognize our elders, especially for the love they shared with their families and the contributions they have made to the community. We wish them all continued good health and longevity.”