Ray Edward Lay, Sr.

Lay, Sr., Ray Edward - age 94, of Knoxville, after spending over 50 years in the electrical distribution industry, died in Knoxville on Tuesday, April 29, 2014. A devoted church member for most of his life, Lay served as deacon and held many committee chairmanships with both Broadway Baptist Church / Knoxville from 1947 – 1967 and achieved an equally active leadership role with Central Baptist Church, Fountain City from 1967 – 2014. Lay spent his entire business career with Stokes Electric Company / Stokes Lighting Center, Knoxville, and was initially hired by Stokes founder Arthur D. Stokes during an interview at Knoxville Business College in 1940. From that point, Lay went on to develop a legendary sales and management career with Stokes that spanned over 50 years. He ultimately became a major stockholder and business partner with the Stokes family and pioneered the company’s greatest sustained periods of growth and development from 1940 - 1993. Lay was known for having a unique blend of financial management expertise and strong interpersonal skills that helped Stokes build one of the longest tenured and most successful employee groups in Knoxville business community history. Under Lay’s direction, the company also achieved national recognition and numerous performance awards, being widely credited for its innovative marketing and sales initiatives. These included one of the first uses of television advertising by an electrical or lighting distributor in the United States in the early 1980s. Lay was born in 1920 and grew up in the rural Corryton community, working alongside his father, O. L. Lay, Sr. on the family farm on Majors Road at the height of the Great Depression. He graduated from Gibbs High School in 1938 and received a degree in Accounting from Knoxville Business College in 1940. He was interviewed at the college by Arthur D. Stokes, founder of Stokes Electric / Stokes Lighting Center (1933) and, in an event that would change the course of his life, was hired by Stokes initially as a bookkeeper. The two men ultimately became close friends and business partners forging a relationship between the Stokes and Lay families that would last over 50 years. Lay’s initial employment with Stokes Electric was interrupted by a stint in the US Navy during WWII from 1941-1945, where he served with distinction as Chief Petty Officer and legal attaché to the JAG Corps at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington and Sitka Naval Air Station, Sitka, Alaska. During the early war years, he married his college sweetheart, Marjorie Ernestine Gresham in 1942, and they had two children. He returned to Knoxville after the War resuming his employment with Stokes Electric, shifting from accounting into a legendary sales career as one of the first Stokes contractor account salesmen in 1945. By 1964, Lay was promoted to the position of VP Sales and then was named President and CEO in 1969, a position held until his retirement in 1993. Lay presided over some of the Stokes’ greatest periods on growth and expansion including the company’s move from its original location at 10th Street and Forest Avenue (now on the World’s Fair site) to its current regional distribution center at 1701 McCalla Avenue in 1964. He also achieved strong regional branch system growth throughout his tenure including the company’s premier lighting showroom on Papermill Road in 1985 – the largest single location lighting showroom in the US at that time. By 1990, Stokes Electric / Stokes Lighting Center was recognized as one of the largest regional distributors of lighting and electrical products in the State of Tennessee and retains this distinction today. Lay is survived by a daughter, Mary Elizabeth (Liz) Howell of Knoxville and her husband David Thomas Howell II and a son, Ray Edward (Eddie) Lay, Jr. and his wife, Jeniffer Perkins Lay of New York City. Lay also has five grandchildren, David Thomas Howell III, Kaitlyn Makenzie Howell and Eric Michael Minton, daughter-in-law Lindsay Renfro Minton all of Knoxville, Keith Edward Lay, Brooklyn, New York and Aaron Perkins Thornton, New Orleans, LA and one great granddaughter, Khemi Rae Thornton, also of New Orleans. The family will receive friends from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., Sunday, May 4, 2014, at Rose Mortuary Broadway Chapel. The family and friends will meet at Highland Memorial Cemetery at 9:45 a.m., Monday, May 5, 2014, for a 10:00 a.m. graveside service with Dr. Calvin Metcalf officiating. The Lay family gratefully acknowledges the outstanding professional care and support provided by Windsor Gardens and Elmcroft of Halls Assisted Living facilities over the past several years. Friends of the Lay family are encouraged to make memorial contributions to Central Baptist Church, Fountain City Building Fund in lieu of flowers. Online obituary may be viewed and condolences extended at www.rosemortuary.com.

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Ray Edward Lay, Sr.

February 12, 1920 - April 29, 2014