OKLAHOMA CITY, OK—MARCH 15, 2021—C. Ray Hoover, Jr., 75, a longtime Oklahoma horseman, passed away on March 10, 2021. 

Ray was born in Brooklyn, NY to C. Ray Hoover, Sr., and Elsie Virginia (Hiet) Hoover. Ray attended and graduated in 1963 from Oklahoma Military Academy in Claremore, Oklahoma. 

Early in life he showed tremendous character, making the news as part of a trio of teen boys lauded for rescuing a man from a burning home in Claremore, OK in 1962. He later became a member of the ROTC and then enlisted in the Army Reserves while attending Oklahoma State University. 

Ray married Carolyn Srum on December 27, 1968 and they resided in Bethany, Oklahoma and were parents to three sons, Bryan, Brett and Brandon. The couple divorced in 1985. 

Ray married Peggy Comerford of Houston, TX on June 29, 1992 in Oklahoma City, OK. 

After his discharge from the Army, Ray worked at several jobs in sales before joining Napoleon Nash, an Oklahoma City landmark for fine menswear, where he was employed from 1972 until 1980 until the chain closed. 

He worked for leading bloodstock agent Don Tyner Inc. before going to to work at Celestial Acres, a racehorse breeding and race training operation in south Oklahoma City where he built on his years of sales experience to become a bloodstock agent. 

In 1983, Ray left Celestial Acres to start his own sales agency, Post Time Associates, a firm providing bloodstock insurance, pedigree and sales services. 

In 1985 he put together a syndicate on the Digging For Gold, a son of Victory Stride(TB) from the champion mare Prissy Gold Digger who earned more than $425,000 and finished second in the 1985 All American Futurity. 

Ray successfully built a network of influential clients in the horse business in Oklahoma and across the nation while at the helm of his own business. This led to the opportunity to take over as President of Heritage Place, the noted equine sales facility in Oklahoma City. 

During his tenure at Heritage Place from 1987 to 1997, most notable top sellers that decade included the great mare Dashingly and Champion mare Heavenly. In 1990, Ray spearheaded the effort to move the Heritage Place Futurity and Derby from Blue Ribbon Downs to Remington Park. 

At the first running at Remington Park, the Heritage Place Futurity purse was valued at $394,000. Before he left Heritage Place in 1997, the race was an Open Grade 1 stakes with a purse of nearly $600,000. He was also involved in the creation of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association and remained involved in the organization in many ways for the rest of his life. 

In 1997, Ray and Peggy moved to Lawton where he assumed the position of President at Affiliated Van Lines, owned by successful horseman Terry Bell. In 2005, the couple returned to Oklahoma City where Ray again launched his own business, a convenience store and restaurant, in partnership with son Bryan. He remained there for five years until his retirement. 

He was preceded in death by his parents and son, Brett Alan Hoover. 

Ray is survived by his wife Peggy, of the home; sons Bryan and wife Sarah of Edmond, OK; Brandon, of Norman, OK; granddaughters Jaycee, Katie, Hannah and Brooke Hoover; and great-grandson Ashton Ray Hoover; sister JoAnn DeVous of Mustang, OK; and nephews Darren and Doug DeVous (and families), both of Tuttle, OK. 

Arrangements for a memorial service will be announced at a later date.