Ray Eli McCartha

My dad, Ray Eli McCartha, was born of goodly parents,Richard McCarthy and Callie Raborn, on 3 Sept 1916 in Crenshaw County, Alabama.  He was the youngest child of Richard and Callie McCarthy.His brothers were, Gordon, Horace and his sister was Lena Maybelle. His father owned a 40 acre farm in Rutledge, Crenshaw County,Alabama. My dad's father passed away when he was about five or six yrs old.  I was told by my stepmom, Annie Jo Stokes McCartha, that my dad only went to the ninth or tenth grade in school (he had to quit and help his mother on the farm).  He told my stepmom that he always had an inferiority complex because he didn't finish school.  I remember that he always stressed a good education to me and my half sister, Raye Ann McCartha Osborne.He left the farm to go work at the CC camp (building highways) to earn money to send to his mother.The CC camp was in Tennessee at a place called Fork Mountain(way up in those Tennessee hills)! It was here that he met my mother, Nettie Lois Woods.if you want to hear more about that story you're welcome to go to my old website Keli'sCountryRoad and click on the "Native American" Page.My dad joined the United States Marines not long after he met my mom. 

When WW11 broke out in 1941, my dad was sent to the Panama Canal zone, then to the Pacific and was fighting on Guam near the end of the war.  He came back to his home in Alabama and married my stepmom and they went up to Fork Mountain, Tennessee on their honeymoon to get me as my mother had passed away and I was living with my mother's sister, Myrtle Mae Woods Chadwell.

During his 20 year career in the Marine Corps he was stationed at various places...Parris Island, South Carolina,(drill instructor),Guam (1949-1950), Camp Lejeune, North Carolina,Rome, Georgia(recruiting duty),back to Parris Island ,South Carolina(1957) and finally Little Creek, Virginia and retired, moving back to Beaufort, South Carolina. He enjoyed music and his favorites according to my stepmom were ..popular and country western.My dad always took pride in everything he did and did it to the best of his ability.  He was always well groomed and as you can see he was a very handsome man In his youth he had black hair and blue grey eyes...  He passed away December 25, 2003 at 1:30 pm in the hospital in Beaufort. He was 87 years old.  Here are a few pictures I have of him.

M/Sgt. Ray E. McCartha (right)

Dad in 1987 when I went to go find my mother's people. We were heading down to Alabama to visit family before heading back to Beaufort,SC. This picture was taken when we stopped in Georgia at a farm and bought some fresh peaches..  He was posing with an old fashioned plow and said he had used one similar to that one when he lived on his mother's farm...That was the last time I ever saw him. Aloha Oe !! Until we meet again Daddy.

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