WILMINGTON: Elsie C. (Burgess) Ray, age 91, a longtime resident of Wilmington, died Monday, January 15, 2007 at the Wilmington Health Care Center.
She was the wife of Thomas D. Ray, who died February 15, 1991.
Born in Malden on November 27, 1915, she was the daughter of the late Ernest O. and Kathryn (Merigold) Burgess.
Mrs. Ray was raised in Tewksbury.
She attended Tewksbury schools and was graduated from Lowell High School in 1933.
Prior to her retirement, she was employed as a supervisor by the Silicon Transistor Company of Chelmsford, where she worked for 10 years.
Mrs. Ray resided in the Tewksbury and Wilmington area until moving to Englewood, Florida in 1980. In 2001, she moved back to Wilmington.
Mrs. Ray was the oldest member of the Tewksbury United Methodist Church.
While residing in Florida, she attended the Englewood United Methodist Church, where she was a member of the Women’s Society.
According to her family, she enjoyed craft projects and made Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls for the children of her church.
In addition, she enjoyed traveling to England, Germany, France, Italy, China, Israel, Australia, Iceland and camping throughout the United States.
She is survived by two brothers; Philip A. Burgess and his wife Maxine(Weber) (Thompson) (Drew) of Port Charlotte, FL and Melvin A. Burgess and his wife Betty (Fosse) of Orlando, FL; also many nieces and nephews including Jean Devlin, with whom she resided of Wilmington.
Mrs. Ray was the sister of the late Elta Brown, Merle Seminatore, Ruth Justice, Chester and Leslie Burgess.
A memorial service will be held Tuesday, January 23rd, at 11 a.m., at the Tewksbury United Methodist Church, cor. of Main & South St. Private interment at the V.A. National Cemetery, Bourne, MA. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions to the the Tewksbury United Methodist Church, 2335 Main St., Tewksbury, MA 01876 are requested.