No picture provided.

Family Tree:
Spouse:  Freda Jean Bowman Helfer

Children:  Alicia Rae Helfer Sullivan Lesko
Robert Ray Helfer
Frank Ray Helfer

Grandchildren:  Jason Alan Sullivan

Parents:  Margaret MacRae Helfer Stevenson and Alexander Helfer
Step-parent: Albert Stevenson

Siblings:  Helen Helfer Miller

Grandparents:  None listed
 
Family Legacies™  
  Cemetery Location    Map to Gravesite

Emil Ray Helfer

Birth Date: 3/27/1922
Death Date: 10/19/1967
Memorial Park Cemetery
Section 8, Lot 77, Grave 2

My father went by E. Ray Helfer. He always was called by his middle name. His parents were divorced when he was young and his stepfather became his father. His birth father was an alcoholic and tried to kill my father by pushing him from a moving vehicle when he was about twelve years of age. My father never had any contact with him after this point in time.My father was a very talented person. He quit high school at sixteen years of age to attend acting school. He attended the Alvini Acting School in Brooklyn, New York. The actor Brian Keith was in his class.At twenty years of age, he joined the Navy. He was a signalman on the USS Tolland AKA64. He met my mother in Indianapolis, Indiana while attending school as part of his Naval training at Butler University. They were only together for a month before he had to leave but became engaged before he departed. They married three years later and remained in New York where my father was from, for six years. During this time, my father performed in shows. He sang and danced on The Paul Whiteman Goodyear Review Show.When my parents got serious about starting a family, they decided to relocate to Indianapolis. My father spent most of his working years with Sun Life Insurance Company and Singer Sewing Machine Company. He still enjoyed acting and was involved with local theater groups that performed various places in Indianapolis.My father died at forty-five years of age of a heart attack. My mother always said that it would have 'killed him' to have survived because he could not have lived with restrictions that would have changed life for him as he loved it.
  Photo Scrapbook
  

July, 1934 Grace Church, New York. Ray was 12 years old.



Sister, Helen, mother Margaret and Ray, mid 1930's.



October 15, 1943, was inpublication captioned, "Todd Honor Roll od Sons of Service."



Ray was in the Navy from November 9, 1942 until November 9, 1945.



Ray was a signalman on the Navy Ship USS Tolland, during WW2.



One of Ray's portfolio pictures. This was taken after he attended Alvini Acting School in New York City.



Ray with his sweetheart, "Freda". He even gave her a bracelet that spelled "Sweetheart" in the code used in Navy Flags.



Ray sent this card to Freda on January 17, 1946. They were married February 22, 1946. He was so romantic.



This picture was in the Indianapolis Star and News. Ray had posed for the picture for a special article on the Indianapolis Police in the 1950's.



This picture was taken aboard a cruise ship in the Summer of 1966. Ray, Freda, Alicia and Frank were seeing Ray's sister and brother-in-law off on a cruise.


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