Ancestors
Ray William Jennings
1913-1977 · Oklahoma
Born 1913, Oklahoma
Died 1977
Father: James Burton Jennings
Mother: Ethel Lena Seal
Children include Willim
Ray William Jennings was born on 9 December 1913 in Oklahoma. He was the youngest of the four sons of James Burton Jennings, a Missourian, and Ethel Lena Seal, who was born in Tennessee. His older brothers were Frank, born in 1905, Bernell, called Barney, born in 1907, and Clarence, called Buck, born in 1910.
In 1930 Ray was sixteen and single, living with his parents in Kay County, Oklahoma, on the Kansas line.
Within a few years he was in East Texas, where the great East Texas oil field had opened in 1930. There he married Minnie Lou Dowdy, a farmer's daughter from Troup. Their first son, Bobby James, was born at Troup on 21 March 1935, and his birth certificate names his parents as Wm Ray Jennings and Minnie Lou Dawdy. That year the young family was living in Smith County. Their second son, William Leon, called Bill, was born at Turnertown in Rusk County on 30 January 1937.
By 1940 Ray had moved the family north to the oil fields of central Kansas. The census found them in Lone Tree Township, McPherson County: Ray, 26, born in Oklahoma, Minnie, 23, and their sons Bobbie, 5, and William, 3, both born in Texas. Three more children were born at McPherson: Kenneth Dwain on 20 October 1941, Danny on 27 November 1944 and a daughter, Jackie Lueller, on 23 August 1948.
On 25 April 1950 the family was living half a mile south of Canton, in McPherson County. Ray, 35, was a pumper in the oil field, the man who tends the wells on a lease and keeps them pumping. Minnie was 34. The children at home were Bobby, 15, William, 13, Kenneth, 8, Danny, 5, and Jackie, 1.
His sons followed him into the work. Bobby "worked his entire life in the oilfield," and Kenneth was an oil field roughneck. In August 1964, when Minnie's father died at Troup, his obituary listed her as Mrs. Ray Jennins of Loving.
In the end the family came back to Minnie's home country. Ray died on 14 December 1977, five days after his 64th birthday, in East Texas. He is buried at Union Grove Cemetery near Troup under a double stone headed JENNINGS, with Minnie's name beside his. Their son Bill had died in 1986, Kenneth in 2007, Danny in 2012, Jackie in 2016 and Bobby in 2025.
Sources
United States census, 1940, Kansas, McPherson County, Lone Tree Township, enumeration district 57-18, sheet 4B, line 79, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRKV-NT8
United States census, 1950, Kansas, McPherson County, Canton, enumeration district 57-4, page 5, lines 7 to 13, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F7L-TBBR
United States census, 1930, Oklahoma, Kay County, sheet 4B, line 97, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XC7Y-GRG
Texas, Birth Certificates, 1903-1936, Bobbie James Jennings, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VXGV-T5Y
Obituary of Kenneth Dwain Jennings, Tyler Morning Telegraph, 20 December 2007, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 102471875, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102471875
Obituary of Bobby James Jennings, Dickens Family Funeral Home, Sedan, Kansas, April 2025, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 281738464, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/281738464
Obituary of Mrs Minnie Lou Jennings Bland, Jacksonville Daily Progress, Jacksonville, Texas, FamilySearch, United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, Births, and Marriages, 1980-2015, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK2Z-N7H2; and Tyler Morning Telegraph, July 2010, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 102356161
Find a Grave memorial 54822559, Union Grove Cemetery, Troup, Texas, photograph added 6 July 2013
Tyler Morning Telegraph, Tyler, Texas, 13 August 1964, page 13, clipping photographed on Find a Grave memorial 54787228, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54787228
United States census 1930, Kay County, Oklahoma, sheet 4B, line 97 (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:XC7Y-GRG); United States census 1940, Lone Tree Township, McPherson County, Kansas, enumeration district 57-18, sheet 4B, line 79 (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:VRKV-NT8); United States census 1950, Canton, McPherson County, Kansas, enumeration district 57-4, page 5, line 7 (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:6F7L-TBBT); Texas birth certificate of Bobbie James Jennings, 1935 (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:VXGV-T5Y); United States Social Security Death Index; obituary of James Jackson Dowdy, Tyler Morning Telegraph, 13 August 1964, page 13; obituaries of Kenneth Dwain Jennings (Tyler Morning Telegraph, 20 December 2007) and Bobby James Jennings (Dickens Family Funeral Home, April 2025), transcribed on Find a Grave memorials 102471875 and 281738464; gravestone photograph, Find a Grave memorial 54822559
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Cite: Heirology, "Ray William Jennings (1913-1977)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/ray-william-jennings-1913-1977-7fcbdb.