The Henderson Family: Ray and Family

Ray

My oldest brother Ray was quite a guy. As the eldest son he was 20 years older than I and on many issues played the role of father. For example, it was he who suggested that I go to university in 1952, since he had attended Queens after the war to get his BA.

He started out as a teacher, and was, in fact, my first teacher when I turned five. He had attended Ottawa Normal School and started teaching at Groveton P.S. Ray could live at home, of course. I recall him as a very musical person. He was always playing the guitar or accordion or mouth organ and singing songs like Bury Me Out on the Lone Prairie. Before records and CDs and TV, we had to make our own music.

When the war came along, he joined the air force. I remember hearing the roar of an airplane engine and running out of the house to wave at Ray circling over at tree top level in a distinctive yellow Harvard trainer. He was posted at Trenton for some time. He flew Halifax bombers over Germany near the end of the war and, luckily, was not shot down or wounded.

After the war he went to university and then rejoined the air force as an electronics expert with coastal command flying in large radar planes guarding the coastline. He bought a house on the coast just south of Halifax. I recall driving down there in the 50's to visit him and his wife, Shirley, and the kids. I would take Jack and Mary Lyn swimming in the ocean. The Atlantic there is ice cold at the best of times. I could get up to my ankles, but Mary Lyn and Jack would go the whole way in. Ray arranged an exchange with Britain’s coastal command and they lived in London for 2-3 years. I visited them there when I was in Germany for a summer.

When he retired from the air force as a Wing Commander, Ray worked for Ampex for a few years living in Burlington and then in Ottawa. He always complained mightily about the cold winters, and, always one to live up to his principles, moved to Victoria. Eventually, all of the five children moved to BC as if drawn by some magnet. I could never figure that out since my children have a tendency to live all over the globe.

During the war, everyone smoked. It seemed at the time to be one of the greatest of pleasures. Ray was no different, but unfortunately it caught up with him since he died of emphysema at 82. When he left, Shirley and Jack continued to live in the house in Victoria. When I visited last, she had a great party that all of her children came to.

Ray left a large gap in all of our lives because he was a person with an immense energy and an outgoing personality. He meant a great deal to me as the kid brother who he protected and advised well.

Ray's Family

This formal portrait of the Ray Henderson family was taken in Ottawa at a point when everyone was living at home.
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Mary Lyn, the eldest, is sitting to Ray’s right. Standing behind them are Julie, Jack, Margaret and Ann Marie. Shirley completes the picture.
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