Martha Love Ray

Martha Love Stiddum Ray of Nashville, Tenn., died at age 91 on Thursday morning, October 16, 2025, in Belvedere Commons of Franklin (Tenn.).

Martha S. Ray, a retired R.N., leaves behind two children, Mark (Leigh) Ray of Nashville, Tenn., and Melanie Pope of Mt. Juliet, Tenn. Martha leaves behind two grandsons, Jake (fiancée Taylor Mathews) Russell of Ponchatoula, La., and Colt (Aubrey) Russell of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., who are both sons of Melanie; and three great-grandsons, Bristol Russell, who is the son of Colt, Augustus Russell, son of Jake, and Waco Russell, son of Colt.

Martha was preceded in death by her parents, father Fernando Stiddum and mother Ida Mae Temple Stiddum, and by her husband, Horace A. Ray.

Martha was born in Nashville on April 6, 1934. She grew up in Neelys Bend near the Cumberland River in Nashville. On Christmas Day 2024, she fulfilled a wish to visit her old homeplace site on Neelys Bend Road. She recalled the nursing home that her parents once operated out of their home to care for various patients released from the nearby hospital. The nursing care was started at the request of a doctor with whom Martha's mother, a nurse, worked. Martha also recalled from her childhood how her beloved daddy used to carry her on his shoulders through the fields.

Martha had a long career as a registered nurse at Nashville General Hospital, working for many years at its original location on Hermitage Avenue overlooking the Cumberland River and later at the hospital's Albion Street location. Martha's areas of service at General Hospital included the Emergency Room and the maternity ward. Her joy was helping to save lives of patients and to deliver babies and take care of them and their mothers.

Extending her expertise to meet family needs, Martha opened her home on a number of occasions to care deeply for ailing or dying loved ones who wanted to remain with family. Martha also sought to educate her family in first responder skills. And she shared her skills and talents on medical mission trips to Guatemala with Health Talents International.

Martha loved to travel with her family. Martha and Horace, along with their children, Mark and Melanie, took camping trips all over the United States. After the children were grown, Martha and Horace continued traveling, including to Canada and Europe. They also took their young grandsons on the little ones' first flight ever, thrilling them with a trip to Texas.

For many years, the holidays meant big gatherings at the Ray home by friends and family for home-cooked Thanksgiving meals and Christmas breakfasts. The Rays had their dining room extended out so they could fit everyone around their table, which was always beautifully and seasonally decorated by Martha. She also enjoyed sneaking in Valentine's Day cards and candy and Easter Bunny baskets to her adult children.

Martha was known for her generosity, her spirited outlook, her vibrant strength, her abiding concern for family, and her love of the farm where she and Horace reared their children and had cattle and ponies.

Martha, along with her husband, Horace, belonged to Lindsley Avenue Church of Christ, where they married, and then for many years belonged to Vultee Church of Christ until its dissolution.

When unable to attend church services late in life, she could still remember and sing the old hymns, enjoy and comment on devotionals from Power for Today, read the Bible, take Communion, and pray.

She had the blessing of living a long and healthy life, overcoming childhood polio and then cancer as an adult and living with Alzheimer's disease in her last year.

Besides her survivors already named, Martha is survived by nieces and nephews.

A private burial was held on Monday, October 20, 2025, in Hillcrest Municipal Cemetery in White House, Tenn.

The family wishes to thank the staff of Belvedere Commons Memory Care and Gentiva Hospice.

Memorial donations for Martha S. Ray may be made to Health Talents International, Inc., at website www.healthtalents.org or mailing address P.O. Box 8303, Searcy, Arkansas 72145.