Ray Lyons' Obituary
Ray H Lyons, age 70, of West Fork died April 23, 2014 in Fayetteville.
He was born March 19, 1944 in Sacramento, California to Lawrence and Aileen (Sargent) Lyons.
Ray was raised a hard worker and at 10 years old he worked for Don Compton at his feed lot in Clay Station, California. He worked like a man already and with his earnings he was proud to be able to buy his own school clothes that year. At the age of 15 he went to Nevada to work on a ranch. There he met a lifelong friend and second father figure Don Bell. These were some of his best years. As a teenager he moved to Winslow, Arkansas to live with his father Lawrence. There he helped his dad log using mules. At age 18, he joined the US Army where he was stationed in Berlin, Germany. After the Army, he spent some time in California before settling in the Winslow area. His one and only “brand new” purchase happened soon after when he saved up his money for a 1965 Pontiac convertible which is still in the family. In 1976, he spent some time in Cody, Wyoming building the rodeo arena there, which is home to the famous Cody Stampede. In 1978, he moved to Oregon where he worked for Coos Trucking and later became a self-employed logger. He would often impress the land owners by making an X in the dirt and falling a tree exactly on the X. He spent over 20 years in Oregon before making his final move to West Fork. Over his lifetime he was involved in the rodeo, making his last bull ride at the age of 45. He always had at least one pedigreed Border Collie around that could work a cow herd just by watching his hand signals. He also built from scratch a lumber sawmill that he replicated by memory from the one his dad had. He would often saw lumber to pay rent. He didn’t believe in a hand out and always provided for his family. The deer population was thin around our house. Family meant everything to him. He always said to stick together.
He is survived by one son, Anthony Lyons of West Fork, Arkansas; five daughters, Audrey of Germany; Kim Martin and her fiancé Jason of Monroe, Oregon; Laurie Wilson and her husband Dean of Coquille, Oregon; Becky Walton and her husband William of Elmira, Oregon; Stacie Crutchfield and her husband Kyle of Coquille, Oregon; two sisters, Laura Campbell of Coquille, Oregon; Katie Eldredge of Eufaula, Oklahoma; three brothers, Ed Dunning of Rosebud, Arkansas; Larry Lyons of Heber Springs, Arkansas; Rodney Kohnke of Galt, California; eleven grandchildren, A.J., J.R., Spencer, Chloe, Josh, Kailey, Kyndal, Brittney, McKenna, Wayde and Will; one great granddaughter, Brooklyn.
Memorial service will be Thursday, May 1 at 11:00am at Blackburn Church in Sunset with graveside services at Fayetteville National Cemetery at 2:00pm. Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Moore’s Chapel in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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