TUCSON, AZ -- Ray Hovis, 96, passed away peacefully September 13 in Tucson, less than a day after quietly singing college tunes and praising the hospice nurses who gently positioned him in bed after his hip fracture.

Ray was born to Edgar and Mabel Hovis at their farmhouse on Schelin Lake near Alborn MN. At age eight, his mother died. The house burned, bankers took the farm, and he was raised by older siblings while his Dad sold Hoover Vacuums door-to-door in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
He and his brothers became skilled hunters as they fed families with harvested venison and other game from the surrounding forest. In his teens, after traveling as a cook on a Lake Superior iron-ore boat, he hitchhiked to the west coast where he helped cousins fish commercially for tuna off the turbulent Seattle coast.
Accepted at the University of Minnesota, he earned a BS in Agriculture Science, then volunteered for the Air Force to enter World War II. His test scores and shooting experience qualified him to specialize in Norden bombsights, top-secret instruments that allowed B-24 Bombers to accurately drop bombs while compensating for varying speeds, altitudes, and wind conditions.
As a 2nd Lieutenant in the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group he served in North Africa maintaining Norden bombsights in B-24s and conducting experiments to find a thin-oil solution to stop their .50 caliber machine guns from freezing in position at high altitude. His 35mm camera recorded numerous B-24 nose-art paintings later featured in The Liberandos, a WWII History of the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group and its Founding Units. When one lens of his glasses was broken by a boot heel, he replaced it by grinding another lens to his prescription using toothpaste and a rag.
Before the end of the war Ray married his teenage sweetheart, Esmer Roningen, an elementary teacher who served as a "Rosie the Riveter" on B-24s manufactured at Boeing in Seattle.
In 1945 Ray founded Hovis Implement Co., selling Pontiacs, Harvester tractors and combines to farmers in southwest Minnesota. Consecutive years of drought in the 1950s convinced him to transition to estate planning for New York Life Insurance Company. In 1955 he moved his family to Rochelle, Illinois where farmers had never seen a drought and valued Ray's premium estate planning coupled to family trusts.
Ray was a tinkerer, mechanic, photographer, inventor, and silversmith who pitched in to wash and dry the dishes. He encouraged his children in sports and school and never ceased to point out truck drivers ahead who always stayed in the exact center of their lane. He was an entrepreneur at heart, stating repeatedly that he could never fail to earn a living, and helped relatives to establish their own family businesses. He encouraged with the world's largest "got your back" wink.
Always active in church, Ray and Esmer joined the First Presbyterian Church in Rochelle and made sure their five children attended Sunday School and sang in the choir. On Christmas Eve Ray secretly changed into padded mirthful garb and unobtrusively disappeared while his children were distracted by a red stranger with a jolly laugh.
When Ray and Esmer retired to Tucson, he volunteered as a docent at the Tucson Air Museum. Still able to wear his trim WW-II uniform, he spoke to visitors in front of an African desert airbase scene that included his WW-II picture of his tent. Through its open flap, his cot was visible and above it, Esmer's picture.

Ray is survived by four children, James Edgar Hovis (Catherine) of DeKalb, IL, Daniel Ray Hovis (Susanne) of Athens, GA, Mary Esmer (Hovis) DeFilippo (Arthur) of Tucson, AZ, Robert William Hovis of Fresno, CA, 17 grandchildren, 16 great grandchildren, and his sister Dorothy (Hovis) Blomstrand of Duluth, MN.

Ray was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Esmer Laura Roningen, eight brothers and sisters, his son Thomas Ervin Hovis, and his grandson Ravi Lucas DeFilippo.

Graveside services will be held at 3 PM on Wednesday, September 19th at Lawnridge Cemetary in Rochelle, Illinois, following a 1:00-2:30 PM visitation at Unger-Horner Funeral Home at 400 N 6th St.