It was probably 40 years ago that I first read a story by C. Ray Hall in the Courier-Journal newspaper.
Maybe it was an article about a state basketball tournament where he found just the right touch to include memories of growing up in Trigg County to recount what it was like when a small-town kid made it to the big city.
Maybe it was the story he wrote in November 1986 about Christian County Sheriff Bill Dillard for a Sunday magazine feature, the one where he described the Black lawman casting a shadow that rivaled the one from the Jefferson Davis Monument on the county line.
I loved a C. Ray Hall story. His feature articles were graceful and insightful. He was incomparable when it came to telling a Kentucky story. He knew us. He was one of us.
Every time I read one of C. Ray’s stories, I wanted to meet him. And for years I had this idea that eventually I would. He had retired, after all, and occasionally got back to Trigg County for a visit. It was just a matter of time, I thought.
But time stole that opportunity. I was saddened to see his obituary a few weeks ago when I called up the Goodwin Funeral Home website.
Then Bob Hill, a former colleague at the Courier-Journal, wrote a story about C. Ray. Hill’s story — headlined, “C. Ray Hall, beloved Courier Journal writer, was an inspiration without baggage” — confirmed what I’d always sensed from his stories. C. Ray Hall was an authentically good man.
Other journalists who had worked with him posted memories that backed this up.
“Devastating news,” Sports Illustrated senior writer Pat Forde wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “C. Ray Hall was the best writer at The Courier-Journal during my 17 years there, and the sharpest observer of culture in Kentucky. He also was endlessly generous with his time in helping me understand the state. A journalism giant.”
And there’s this from from Elinor J. Brecher, also formerly of the Courier-Journal:
“That face. Like a cross between W.C. Fields and a quizzical Halloween pumpkin. Up in our little Sunday Magazine nest in the ’80s, that guy made me laugh every single day, no matter what my baseline mood. Never saw him anxious, rattled or angry. Everything he wrote was insightful, nuanced and deft. He was as giving with his time and talent as he was stingy about the details of his private life — and believe me, I spent years trying to pry them out of him. About as far as I got was learning he had a crush on some female in the building. Another secret taken to the grave. C. Ray was a mensch. I’ll miss him.”
C. Ray Hall died in late July at his Louisville home.
Hill wrote, “On July 29, 2024, neighbors called police to his Louisville home saying no one had picked up his mail in a few days. His body was found seated at his computer, as if still writing, the probable cause of death a heart attack. C. Ray Hall was 77. His survivors are three nephews.”
C. Ray got his start as a writer in Trigg County. He kept stats and wrote results from Little League and filed columns with the Cadiz Record newspaper about Trigg County High School teams. He was the salutatorian of Trigg County’s Class of 1965.
He had retired from the Courier-Journal in 2011 and left instructions with family in Cadiz that he did not want a funeral service. His ashes were spread next to his parents at Blue Springs Cemetery in Trigg County.
Bob Brame, who is president of the Trigg County Historical Society, told the Courier-Journal that there are plans to honor C. Ray as a Trigg County High School Distinguished Alumni.
His stories will endure.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
