May Harris Gray -- Centenarian and Poet

 

May Harris Gray; age 109, died on December 27, 2005 in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

May Gray was born on September 11, 1896 in Canton, Kentucky and was educated in Kentucky, Illinois and Louisiana. After receiving a teacher's certificate she taught school and music in Louisiana before her marriage to Thomas Virgil Gray, Sr.  They had three children; Jean Peer, Dorothy Edwards and Thomas Virgil Gray, Jr.

From early years she has loved, read, memorized, studied, and written poetry. She is a Life Member of the Poetry Society of America, a member of the National Leagues of American Pen Women, The Kentucky State Poetry Society, and the Poets’s Roundtable of Arkansas. She was co-founder, with Eloise Barksdale of the Fort Smith Branch, the first of nine branches of the Poets' Roundtable of Arkansas. This organization named her "Poet of the Present" and presented her the C. C. Allard Cup as "Poet of the Year".

May Grays' numerous awards include "The Book Award" sponsored by the National league of American Pen Women, The Poetry Society of America "Dylan Thomas Award", and "The Grand Prix" sponsored by the Kentucky State Poetry Society.

The Poetry of May Gray has been published in magazines, literary quarterlies, church literature, newspapers including the anthologies: "Our Christian Home and Family” published by Harper and Row, "Kentucky in American Letters", "Poets of the Midwest", and the "Poets' Roundtable", among others. She has judged poems for state competitions in several states. Mrs. Gray is listed in Marquis "Who's Who of American Women", Arkansas Lives', and "Who's Who in Poetry, England".

May sold her first poem in 1935 to Good Housekeeping magazine.  Since then hundreds of her poems have been published.  In the summer of 1996 a book featuring her poems with full color illustrations by her artist grandson, Charles Peer, entitled “Tending the Master’s Garden: Joyful Thanksgiving for the Beauty of God’s Handiwork” was published.  A companion volume entitled “Celebrating the Master’s Christmas” was also published later that year.  She was the author of eight books of poetry and one of poetry and prose.

“You are a very special individual!”  That’s what the mayor of Fort Smith told May when he issued a special proclamation marking her 100^th birthday on September 11, 1996. 

Below is a sample of May’s poetry

DISCOVERY, by MAY HARRIS GRAY

Down by the moss bank
Deep, so deep,
I found a bed of violets
Still half-asleep.

I saw small petaled faces
With wonder looking up;
I saw bees drinking honey
From every dewy cup.

I found a tiny open tomb
Deep beneath the sod;
I found more than violets:
I found the pulse of God.

 

 

 

 THE LINEAGE:

(May Harris Gray was the daughter of James Robert and Mary Priscilla Bridges Harris.  Mary Priscilla was the fifth child of Starkie T. and Elizabeth W. Lawrence Bridges.  Starkie was the second child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges. William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.  Mary Thomas was the fifth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)