Ray Germany

Raymond Dewie "Ray" Germany, Sr. (Louisiana basketball player and coach; environmental safety manager; 2016 inductee of the Ark-La-Tex Sports Museum of Champions in Shreveport)
Born	July 15, 1936 Canton, Van Zandt County, Texas
Died	September 27, 2021 (aged 85) Haughton, Bossier Parish, Louisiana Death cause: Prostate cancer Resting place: Vienna Cemetery in Vienna in Lincoln Parish
Political Party	Independent Alma mater: Holly Ridge High School in Holly Ridge in Richland Parish, Louisiana Louisiana Tech University Texas A&M University
Spouse	Nelda Sue Barnett Germany (married c. 1959-2021, his death) Children: Lovie Dee Germany Hunt Dr. Raymond Germany, Jr., M.D. Robbie Elizabeth "Beth" Germany Burns Kent Barnett Germany

Raymond Dewie Germany, Sr. (July 15, 1936 – September 27, 2021), was a Louisiana Tech University Bulldogs basketball player and high school coach. After his educational career, he received a Ph.D. in Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University in College Station and went on to a two-decades career in the environmental field. He worked for an environmental consulting and testing firm for seven years and then for the Arkla Pipeline Group for twelve years as the environmental safety manager.^[1]

Background[edit]

Born in Canton in Van Zandt County in east Texas, Germany was one of eight children of Marlin Hall Germany (1905-1960), a farm laborer who was residing at the time of his death in Vernon in Wilbarger County in north Texas,^[2] and the former Ruth Perkins (1904-1951). The parents are interred in separate cemeteries in Vernon and Martin's Mill in Van Zandt County, respectively.^[3]

A younger brother, Marlin Ray Germany (1939-2014), was born and reared in Martin's Mill and died in Athens in Henderson County, Texas. Another younger brother, Lester Gene Germany (1945-2006),^[4] graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a degree in geology^[5] and was employed for thirty-four years as an environmental scientist. Though he resided at the time of his death at the age of sixty in Richmond County, Georgia, Lester Germany is interred at Holly Springs Cemetery in Martin's Mill, along with his mother and other siblings.^[6] Germany's only living brother, Charles Glen Germany (born July 1947), resides in Rayville in Richland Parish, east of Monroe, Louisiana.

Basketball[edit]

Born during the height of the Great Depression, Germany lived his early life Martins Mill and Vernon, describing his childhood as one of being “a country boy raised in a cotton patch.” In Vernon, he nailed the metal ring from an old barrel on a barn and practiced shooting basketball in the West Texas wind. As a teenager, he moved to northeastern Louisiana and attended Holly Ridge High School in Richland Parish, from which he graduated in 1955. A two-time All-State basketball player, he was a member of the school’s Class B State Champion team. He was selected “Mr. Basketball” of LA in 1955 by the LHSAA.^[1]

Germany was an All American at Louisiana Tech in 1959 and 1960. He is one of only three players in program history to have received All-Gulf States Conference honors during all four years of play. With a 21-4 success record, Germany helped to lead the Bulldogs under Coach Cecil Crowley to the 1959 Gulf States Conference title. He earned honorable mention from United Press International and the Associated Press in the 1958-1959 season and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics second team All-American honors in 1959 and 1960. ^[7] Germany is among nine former Louisiana Tech men's basketball players, including Jackie Moreland (1938-1971), to have received all-American honors. He finished his college career with 1,393 points and a No. 22 national ranking.^[8]

From 1961 to 1963, Germany coached at Farmerville High School in Farmerville in Union Parish.^[9] From 1963 to 1970, he taught science, driver's training, and coached at Minden High School in Minden in Webster Parish, Louisiana.^[10]

Among his Minden players over the seven seasons were Jerome Vascocu (subsequently a track and field star at Louisiana Tech and a bank president in Rayville), Winston Walker, Bobby Lyle, Jimmy Stewart, Philip McInnis, a Minden insurance agent, Fred Maylah Hill (1948-1989),^[11][12] Mickey Walker, Steve Whitney Carson (1949-2013),^[13] Donald Ray Stanley (1949-1997), Randy Myers, Wayne Jackson,^[14] Bob Greer, Donald Kennedy, Kenneth E. Balkom (1951-1996),^[15] Risdon Ernest "Mike" Woodard, III, later a Minden financial advisor; Bobby Covington, Eddie Carroll, William Life "Bill" Jamieson, Robert Lee "Bobby" Kirchoff, later co-owner of the Superior Bar and Grill restaurant chain,^[16] and Phillip Randall Jones (1953-1976),^[17] later a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force who was killed in a pilot training accident in Bailey County, Texas.^[18]

On August 6, 2016, Germany and four others were inducted into the Ark-La-Tex Sports Museum of Champions at the Shreveport Convention Center. Since its opening in 2007 through 2015, 132 persons had been selected for this honor. His fellow inductees are former Haughton High School coach and state Representative Billy Montgomery of Bossier Parish, former Denver Broncos quarterback and Louisiana Tech football coach Mickey Slaughter, hot air balloonist Bill Bussey of Longview, Texas, and the professional golf caddy Freddie C. Burns, Sr. of Shreveport,^[8] who for thirty-eight years was associated with Hal Sutton.

Private life[edit]

After his coaching ended, Germany resided in Ruston, where he was employed by Kadav, Inc., a crop planting and protection firm. He and his wife, the former Nelda Sue Barnett (born May 1943), have two sons and two daughters. Their older son, Raymond, Jr. (born April 1963), practices urology in Shreveport. Kent Barnett Germany (born c. 1971) is an historian at the University of South Carolina in the capital city of Columbia, South Carolina, who specializes in African-American studies and is the author of New Orleans after the Promises: Poverty, Citizenship, and the Search for the Great Society, a 2007 publication of the University of Georgia Press.^[19][20] The Germany daughters are Lovie Dee Hunt of Haughton and Robbie Elizabeth "Beth" Burns of Hendersonville, Tennessee.

Germany died of prostate cancer at his Haughton home at the age of eighty-five. In his last week of his life, he said, “that’s the legacy—how your family is.”^[1]

He is interred at Vienna Cemetery in rural Vienna in Lincoln Parish.^[1]

References[edit]