Raymond Elroy Letcher

Raymond Elroy Letcher was born in Sioux Falls, SD on July 27, 1950 and died February 13, 2005 in San Diego, CA of adenocarci-noma. The son of ElRoy and Lou Lorraine Letcher, he moved from Sioux Falls, SD to Phoenix AZ in 1956 with his family. He attended and graduated from Maryland Elementary, Washington High, and Gendale Community College. He started school at NAU, continuing as a music major and after a few months he was offered a job with a locally formed rock band, "Calliope", composed of many fellow students from Glendale College. They toured the US and later formed a band "AS IS' out of Kansas. Ray continued to play with different bands in CA but things were slow for him so he decided to leave music and come back to Phoenix where he worked for his dad in the pool business and went on to become manager of Swim Chem West in the mid '80s. It was at this time he went back to school and earned a business degree from the University of Phoenix. From the time he learned to play trombone in grade school, his main interest was music and he became an accomplished musician mastering several instruments and also arranging music. But his first love was always the trombone. In the late 80s he was strickened with cancer and the doctors didn't give him any hope for recovery. But he was determined to beat this disease and he did. It was during his recovery period he realized life was to short not to do the things that meant the most to him. As he gained his strength, he began playing professionally with different groups in the Phoenix area. He moved to San Diego in the mid 90s and played with different groups there and also organized "Select Brass" which played for various functions and activities. This suddenly came to an end on July 27, 2004 his 54th birthday. He became ill and never played again. A few days later we all learned that he had a cancer that was untreatable. Like before he made a gallant fight, but it was not to be. Ray is survived by his wife, Rita Montgomery; his parents, Lou and ElRoy; his sister Layla; his brothers, Randy, Richard and Rob; nieces Rachel, Karis and Ashley; nephews Joshua and Dustin. Ray we love you, we miss you. You will always be a song in our hearts. There will be a memorial service held on Saturday April 2nd at 5:30 PM at the Open Door Fellowship at 8301 N. 19th Ave Phoenix, AZ. In lieu of flowers we are asking that donation be made to the San Diego Hospice at 4311 3rdAve San Diego CA 92103