Joseph “Ray” Kramer Jr., age 83, of Kingstree, South Carolina, formerly of Buckeye, and Lafayette, Indiana, passed away peacefully August 18, 2018, at Prince George Healthcare in Georgetown, South Carolina.
Born January 13, 1935, on a small farm in Buckeye, he was a son of the late Joseph Ray Sr. and Bertie Marie Kramer.
Ray attended Hillsboro High School and worked on the farm raising and showing championship sheep and cattle. He made multiple appearances at the Grand National Championships in Chicago showing his prized sheep. He entered the army in 1957, but took an early discharge due to his father’s death, and returned home to run the farm and be with his mother and younger sister, Mary Margie.
In 1964 Ray married Shirley M. Harvey, who proceeded him in death, and embraced her three children, Katie, Rob and Nora.
In 1965, Ray gave up farming and moved his family to Lafayette, Indiana, to work in the construction industry.
Ray loved sports of all kinds, but in particular, baseball, football and basketball. His favorite teams were the Atlanta Braves, West Virginia Mountaineers and Purdue Boilermakers. He also enjoyed politics and history.
Ray eventually moved back to Buckeye, then on to Kingstree, South Carolina, where he made his final home.
He is survived by his sister Mary Margie Fisher, and husband, Charles, of Kingstree, South Carolina; children, Robert Lilly, and wife, Debra, of Columbus, Indiana, Katie Green, of Peterstown, and Nora Adams of Lafayette, Indiana; nephews, John Fisher, and Joe Fisher, both of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina; great-nephew, Thomas Fisher, of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina; great-niece, Ella Fisher, of Mt. Pleasant South Carolina.
Ray’s ashes will be spread and a memorial held at the gravesites of his mother and father in Hillsboro at a future date.
Online condolences may be made at www.grahamfuneralhome.org