Joshua “Josh” Lyle Ray, 21, of Tifton died Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007, at Tift Regional Medical Center. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the First Baptist Church Sanctuary. Dr. Wayne Roe will officiate with a eulogy to be given by Dustin Griffis. Burial will follow at Oak Ridge Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Dr. Buddy Cawley, Coach David Cape, Coach Mayo Tucker, Coach Roy McWilliams, Erick Willis, Chip Rainey and Terry Gonzalez-Rubio. Honorary pallbearers will be Michael Smith, Matthew Smith, Jordan Pope, Ross Parrish, Zack Webb, Justin Deberry, John Walker and Zack Waldrop. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 tonight in the Chapel of Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals.

Mr. Ray was born July 12, 1986, in Tift County, and was the son of Kenny Ray of Tifton and Leobeth Gonzalez-Rubio Sumner of Ocilla. He graduated from Tiftarea Academy and was presently attending Abraham Baldwin College. He was a WNPF Pan-American First Place Powerlifting Champion and loved hunting, fishing, his family and friends. He was a member of Tifton’s First Baptist Church.

In addition to his parents, Mr. Ray is survived by his grandparents, Lounell and Ray Jensen of Chula, Jimmy Ray of Tifton, and Sylvia and Royce Henderson of Fitzgerald; his great grandmother, Bessie Harper of Ocilla; one brother, Dustin Griffis of Cleveland, Tenn.; one sister, Lindsay Griffis of Columbus; his aunts, Martha Ray of Tifton and Louise Baker of Orlando, Fla.; his uncles, Terry Gonzalez-Rubio of Fitzgerald and Matt Gonzalez-Rubio of Fitzgerald, and a special friend, Amanda Young of Tifton.

Sign the online guest registry at www.bowen-donaldson.com. Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals is in charge of arrangements.