Raymond Edgar Thompson Sr.

RAYMOND EDGAR "RAY" THOMPSON SR. Funeral services for longtime Cortez resident Raymond Edgar "Ray" Thompson Sr. will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, August 29, 2013 at Ertel Memorial Chapel. Interment will follow at Cortez Cemetery. Mr. Doug Carver will officiate. Ray was born June 17, 1940 in Atkins, Ark., the son of Clyde and Delta Uleta (Faucet) Thompson. He passed away at his home on Monday, August 26, 2013 at the age of 73. Ray started work early. His first job was working the cotton fields in his home town of Atkins, Ark. at the age of five. He continued this line of work until moving to Clifton, Colo. with his parents in 1956. That same year, when Ray was 16 he went to work on the oil rigs for R & R Well Service, which sparked a long and interesting career in the oil fields taking him to multiple different companies and multiple different countries. Ray met his first wife, Joyce McKracken, and they were married in 1958 and had four children together. In 1967, as he was passing through Cortez, Ray decided to stay. There, he met his second wife, Peggy Blair. They were married in 1970 and along with inheriting one child, had two more children with her. In 1973, he started working overseas in Saudi Arabia and worked there for ten years and after he came back in 1983 he met Blanche Littlefield and when they were married in the fall of 1991 he inherited three more loving children. During his career, Ray had the pleasure of working with four of his sons, Ray Thompson Jr., Steve Thompson, Cliff Littlefield, and Scott McMinn. Surviving Ray are his wife Blanche Irene Thompson of Cortez; children, Raymond Edgar Thomson Jr. of Cheyenne, Wyo., Shirley Jo Nolan and husband, James of Virginia Beach, Virg., Steven Franklin Thompson and wife, Patti of Mertzon, Tex., Doyle Scott McMinn and wife, Tammy of Bloomfield, N.M., Brandon Lee Thompson, Joshua Ray Thompson of California, Casey Joe Thompson and wife, Kelsey of California, Kelly Ann Boren and husband, Luke of Cortez, Clifford Allen Littlefield and wife, Gina of Cortez, and Amy Irene Maybury of Cortez; 25 grandchildren; three great grandchildren; and brothers, Virgil Lee Thompson of Cortez, and John William Thompson and wife, Wilma of Colorado Springs, Colo. Ray was preceded in death by his parents, Clyde and Delta Thompson; grandson, Robert Dylan Maybury; brothers, Roy Russell Thompson, Fred Wayne Thompson, and Robert Cale Thompson; and sisters, Anita Louise Cose and Etta Catherine Thompson.