Obituaries: Charles Ray Willis, 1933, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483
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From: November 23, 1933 Winn Parish Enterprise

Funeral Services For Ray Willis Held Monday

Dies From Injuries Received in Car Accident Enroute to Winnfield

Funeral services for Charles Ray Willis, 15 years, 10 months and 3 days, who
died in the Tri-State Sanitarium, Shreveport, Sunday morning, November 19,
from injuries received when a CCC truck crashed into a car he was driving
Saturday night enroute to Winnfield, were held at the Baptist Church, Sikes,
Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock with the Rev. Lee, pastor, and the Rev. Joe
Adams, officiating.  Interment was in the Sikes Cemetery.  The large number of
friends present and the beautiful floral offerings attested to the esteem in
which the deceased and his family are held.

Pallbearers were uncles and a cousin of Ray.  They were P. J. Willis, Woodrow
Fordham, Sam Willis, Jack Willis, Lloyd Willis, S. J. Willis, Lloyd Puckett,
Charlie Puckett, and Bailey Puckett.  The flower carriers were the following
classmates: Archie Thigpen, Gertrude Willis, Artie White, Elaine Crain, Bill
Taylor, Floyd Crain, Clyde Parker, Jack Ellerbee, Wayne Prince, Homer Parker,
Edgar Thomas, Ellis Smith, Quinton Mays, and Elvie Parker.

Ray Willis was born and reared in the Sikes community the eldest son of Mr.
and Mrs. E. C. Willis.  Besides his parents he is survived by two brothers,
Ross and Puckett, his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Puckett of
Georgetown, and a large number of aunts and uncles and a host of friends.

The accident occurred on a hill which curves a few miles from Sikes.  Ray
Willis, his mother, Mrs. E. C. Willis, and Miss Bill Crain, daughter of R. W.
Crain, had just left church services and were enroute to Winnfield at about 8
p.m.  The youth was driving and seeing the approach of the CCC truck filled
with girls and boys going to a camp dance, drove his cat to the extreme right
of the road to avoid a crash and stopped.  The truck careened into the left
side of the car, crushing the boy's arm.  None others were seriously hurt. 

Melvin Thomas, who came upon the scene a few minutes later, picked the youth
and his mother up in his car and carried them to Sikes.  The injured boy was
then rushed to the Jonesboro hospital where he was given first aid treatment
and then to the Tri-State Sanitarium in Shreveport where he died the next
morning from shock and the loss of blood.

Norman Morgan, who was driving the CCC truck was arrested the next morning and
is being held in the Winn Parish jail without bond, which is the
recommendation of a coroner's jury at the inquest held Wednesday.