many years ago down in dunn, north carolina, ray vernon was born. i have always had a fondness for north carolina, because my mother was born in the mountains of western north carolina, in the little sleepy town of marion. vernon was the oldest of the three brothers. he had two younger siblings link and doug. his name wasn’t ray. it was vernon, vernon wray. he had several aka’s. lucky was the one used most often, other than vernon. after ray finished high school, he went into entertainment playing gigs in dunn and the surrounding area. it wasn’t easy to do in the days following world war ii, because transportation was at a minimum. it is not clear to me if ray used other musicians other than link and doug in his early entertainment days. i know that link and doug played with him most of the time. at some point early on, ray acquired a car and the trip to the gigs became much easier. there was always music around the wray household, his mother was a big influence musically in ray’s early life if not all of his life. when link and doug got out of high school, they began to play at military clubs. the military clubs were located in eastern north carolina, ft. bragg, seymour johnson, afb, the marine base at cherry point. they worked their way up to virginia to work the navy base at norfolk, little creek amphibian portsmouth, virginia any place to make a buck. the military clubs were good place’s to work because they always got paid, and they didn’t have to worry about getting their selves their equipment torn up. they also worked virginia beach and played at dance’s and night clubs in and around the norfolk area. at some point while ray was working in the virginia area he crossed paths with shorty horton. shorty played bass in a lot of country bands in the area. he was a very funny man with big sense of humor. it always seemed to be the bass man who was the cut up of any country band and shorty was no exception. keeping in mind this was country music, ray was playing and shorty added a lot of flavor to the group. he blacked out his teeth and wore an old hat with holes in it. he wore bib overalls. he didn’t shave for two or three days. he was the perfect pappy yokum, right out of the little abner comic strip. he fitted the mold of the typical west virginia mountain hillbilly. shorty fit right in with the group, giving it the last ingredient it needed to become a top country band. ray decided that they needed to move to washington, d.c. where country music was really going great guns, behind the ingenious promotion of connie b.gay. ray and his band loaded up the car and head north on 95 to washington, d.c. when the band arrived in washington, dc, they were known as lucky wray and the palmetto ranch boys. it seemed country music bands had to have a western name. i suppose since roy rogers, and gene autry had ranch’s every other legitimate cowboy with his guitar and band had to have a ranch or be associated with one. lucky ray and the palmetto ranch boy’s were no exception. they began to play in bars and night clubs any where and every where in the washington, d.c. area. by this time it was 1956 and a young man named elvis presley was kicking up quite a fuss down south in memphis and it was spreading to all parts of the country. the question comes up time and time again, if elvis recorded his first record in 1954 why didn’t more potential bands who were doing country music start doing rock originated music before 1956-57? they did, but they could only do what they heard on the radio. those bands who were near memphis or shreveport, new orleans, nashville, houston, and los angles had the advantage. they were near recording studio’s who were looking for talent. that also included chicago and new york. washington, d.c. was far removed from the main stream of rock-n-roll with almost no recording facilities, and what it did have was leaning toward country. all the country singers who got lucky in the washington, d.c. area went to nashville to record, with one exception philadelphia. while playing in a club one night a talent scout from cameo records in philadelphia heard ray singing and invited him to come to philadelphia to do some recording. the owners of cameo records were so impressed that they signed him to a recording contract. ray recorded “evil angel,” but was not satisfied with the result the band was giving him. he returned to washington, d.c. to get his brother link. another recording was made, but not to rays satisfaction. this time he brought back his brother doug who played drums and shorty horton played bass on the recording session. they recorded “evil angel” again and the outcome was perfect. “evil angel” never got the air play it should have. ray did a perfect job singing the song. “evil angel” was hit material and should gone high in the charts, but it got lost in the promotional shuffle at cameo. charlie gracie had just recorded “butterfly” and it was being pushed very hard because andy williams had just covered the song. as it turned out charlie gracie’s song stalled and andy williams went on to get the big air play on “butterfly. other recordings were made but no promotion was given to them as by this time bobby ridell had taken over as the number one artist at cameo. ray became very discouraged at the outcome at cameo and did some recording edgewood studios on vermont avenue with link and sent the demos to liberty records in hollywood. they signed ray to a contract and released “my sugar plum,” but gave the record no promotion. the song died without ever hitting the charts. ray vernon had a beautiful voice. he could sing any song he wanted and it would sound like a million dollars. his voice had a velvet touch. his range was so good he could reach any note he wanted. why he didn’t try to get on a major country music label? i’ll never know. i suppose that will always be a mystery. he should have made it big in the entertainment business. ray spent most of his career promoting and producing link. he opened up his own recording studio, the record factory. ray was a good recording engineer. he was a man who was blessed with many talents. i worked for him as a talent scout while i was a dj at wdon in wheaton, maryland. i worked for him when he moved the studio to accokeek, maryland. he called it wrays shack three track. i brought don barnes from frederick, maryland to record there when he was a maryland state policeman. don went on to become sheriff of frederick county. the ray vernon i knew in 1957 was a gentle person, who worked very hard for his brothers and shorty horton, so they could make a living in the entertainment business. i have a lot of respect for ray and i learned a lot from him. i use what i learned from him till this very day. i know ray was short changed when it came to his personal career and i think it bothered him a lot. i will always believe he gave up a recording career so his brothers would have a better chance at recoding a hit record. if that be so vernon wray did well at his decision, because “rumble” made link famous. the name ray vernon or vernon wray may not mean a lot to you who are reading this column, but i will share this with you, if it had not been for ray vernon there would have been on “rumble” and possibly no need to write this column. in the many halls of rock-n-roll there are stories that have happened and we never hear of them. this could have been one of them. it’s not as if i was writing about elvis and you were hanging on every word, this is about a man of many talents who you possibly have never heard of who gave up some of them so the talents of someone else could shine through. ray moved out to arizona and did more producing and eventually out despondence took his own life. i will always remember ray vernon as the man with the velvet voice.