Ray Lemons Passing

It is with regret that I share the recent passing of Ray Lemons just this past Tuesday evening, 2/7/23. On behalf of the KMHS Board, we offer our sincere prayers and condolences to all members of the Lemons Family.

Ray was a waist gunner and flight engineer on Pilot Jim Baynham’s King Kong on 9/27/44.  We were fortunate enough to have Ray ( and Jim) interviewed for Aaron Elson’s book, King Kong Down, sharing their stories first hand.  We were also fortunate enough to have Ray for 103 years! He will be missed by all.

As a founding member of the family Kassel Mission Historical Society, he actively attended and participated in our board meetings until about 18 months ago.  Ray will be remembered for his bright and enthusiastic personality and enjoying every moment of his long life!  As noted from our board member, Bob Toeppe, who met Ray years ago at an 8th Air Force reunion… “ Ray was a gentlemen and a class act that I will always remember”.

A life well lived who also was responsible for other lives well lived, Ray was special among all our 445th heroes!  Below is a eulogy just written by Ray’s pilot, Jim Baynham who says it well.

Ray was my last b-24 crew member to die. He was 103. Here is a eulogy I wrote in his honor…

A couple of weeks before Christmas in 1943, 80 years ago, I finished my training to fly a B-24 Liberator bomber in Ft. Worth, Texas and got orders to report to a little Army Air Corp base in Salt Lake City. That’s where they would assign nine Airmen to fly with me in a B-24. A crowd of us were at an orderly room listening for our names and then moving over to a corner of the room to meet each other. I had the list in my hand. That’s where I first met Ray. I was 19, the youngest of the ten, and I was their Airplane Commander. The first words Ray spoke to when we met were “HOW OLD ARE YOU”?

He had been trained as an Aerial Gunner but in addition he had graduated from Flight Engineer School. But on our orders , Howard Boldt was listed as my Flight Engineer. So that’s the way it was. Ray obeyed his orders and served well in a role that was his. He was to be one of our waist gunners. But with his skills he became our assistant Flight Engineer. Ray served wherever he was needed. He even flew as our bombardier once when Hector was Ill. Ray always stepped up and did what  he needed to do. But I always suspected The Lord had a hand in his assignment. Less than a year later we were on what became known as the infamous KASSEL RAID. WE WERE ATTACKD BY 150 Focke Wolfe 190s. They swept through our formation with four passes. They shot down twenty six of our group. Our ship, “King Kong” was set afire and after the fourth pass we knew we were going down. A cannon shell had exploded in John Knox’s tail turret. Shrapnel blinded him in one eye and mangled his legs. He rolled out of his turret, badly injured. And there was Ray, right where The Lord had placed him. He grabbed Knox, snapped a parachute on him, opened the belly hatch and threw him out. Knox drifted down from four miles up, wound up in a hospital and survived until he died at 90 years of age. Because Ray was there. The story was in the records but Ray never got a medal. He just did what he needed to do. He was a good guy. I was honored to serve with him. Ray, I salute you. God Bless You and all those who knew your love.  

Jim Baynham