RAY PATE SR.

PERRY –

Raymon Roger "Ray" Pate, Sr., 81, passed away peacefully on Saturday, December 20, 2025, with his loving family by his side. Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, December 27, 2025, at Christ Lutheran Church. Visitation will begin at 1:00 p.m. and will be followed by the Funeral Service at 2:00 p.m. Entombment will be in the Resurrection Mausoleum in Perry Memorial Gardens immediately following the service. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests memorial contributions to Christ Lutheran Church, 208 Langston Road, Perry, GA 31069.

Ray was born on January 13, 1944, in Moultrie, Georgia, to the late Bo and Eris Johnson Pate. He was a graduate of Worth County High School and earned an Associate's Degree in Animal Husbandry from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. He met and married the love of his life, Lavern Reed, and in 1969, the couple moved to Perry with their young son. Ray accepted a position with USDA, the US Department of Agriculture, in their Agriculture Research Service as a Research Technician. He spent time examining peaches and pecans, researching the various and most beneficial ways to protect the crops and help them grow and flourish each year. He retired from USDA after 35 years of service.

Ray was from a farming family, and he always had a natural talent for cultivating and harvesting a large vegetable garden. His annual event was usually successful, due in large part to the planning and daily efforts of Ray, Lavern, and their sons. The landscape around the Pate home was perfectly manicured and sprinkled with delightful seasonal blooms. Ray was an avid hunter and fisherman who shared his love of the outdoors with his sons. He was also an avid reader, often completing several books a week. Ray repeatedly told his grandchildren that they "could go anywhere they wanted by reading," instilling in them the profound value of reading daily.

For the past eighteen years, Ray has been an active member of Christ Lutheran Church. In the early days of the church's existence, many of the children there played soccer, and Ray built them a soccer field on which to fellowship. Today, that same soccer field is used by several soccer organizations in the area. He, along with his wife, was committed to keeping the lawn at the church mowed each week, which they did until his health would no longer allow it.

Left to cherish the memories they made with Ray, affectionately known to his family as "Pops," are his loving and faithful wife of 60 years, Lavern Pate of Perry; his three sons, Ray Pate, Jr. of Tifton, Shannon Pate of Perry, and Craig Pate (Sunday) of Gainesville, GA; his three granddaughters, Madeline Pate, Marina Pate, and Ocean Pate; his brother, Rex Pate of Sylvester; and his niece, Kristen Morris, his nephew, Brandon Pate, and their families.

The Pate family would like to extend a special thanks to Ethel Peavy, Regina McKenzie, Ceclia Mond, and Marilyn Barner for their loving kindness and attentive care of Mr. Pate, and especially for their friendships, through the last three years. It was their combined efforts that allowed Mr. Pate to stay home with his devoted wife until his final day this side of Heaven.

Condolences for the family may be left in the online guestbook at www.watsonhunt.com. Watson-Hunt Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements.