Willie Hugh "Bill" Ragan, Jr. died Friday, July 4, 2008 in Macon. Funeral services will be held at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, July 7, 2008, in the Chapel of Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals. Burial will follow in Old Ty Ty Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. The family will receive friends on Sunday, July 6, 2008, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals.
Mr. Ragan was born on August 12, 1925 in Hawkinsville and was the son of Willie Hugh Ragan, Sr and Althea Elizabeth Knight Ragan, both deceased. He was also preceded in death by one sister, Gladys Noble McKinney. He graduated from Hawkinsville High School in 1942. He joined the Naval Cadet Program and attended college at the University of North Carolina. After leaving the Navy, he worked with Time-Life Magazine Circulation in Chicago. He then worked for Vulcan service in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1953, he joined the Atlanta Journal and Constitution Newspapers and worked there until he retired from Cox Enterprises in 1991. He was a member of the Pythagoras Masonic Lodge 041 in Decatur.
He married Allene Virginia Marchant of Tifton in 1952. They lived in the Atlanta area until 1989, when they moved to Savannah. In December of 2006, they moved to an independent retirement facility in Macon.
Mr. Ragan is survived by his wife, Allene Virginia Marchant Ragan of Macon; two sons and daughters-in-law, Richard A. and Linda Schroder Ragan of Lawrenceville, and Randall H. and Liz Gifford Ragan of Dacula; two daughters and one son-in-law, Teresa D. Guthrie of Newnan, and Susan Ragan Watkins and her husband, James, of Rome; three sisters, Grace Owens of Albany, Althea Daniels of Waynesboro, and Elyse Henderson of Waycross; seven grandchildren, William and Samuel Watkins, Jessica Maldonado, Tracee Guthrie, Katie and Courtney Ragan, and Cristen Ragan; and one great grandchild, Zaria Maldonado; and eight nieces and nephews.