Ray Billings was born to Ruby and Alonzo Billings on July 7, 1943. He is the youngest of a family of four. His father was a hard-working coal miner, who worked in West Virginia and could only come home to Sparta, N.C., on weekends. His Christian mother, a devoted housewife and mother, took good care of the kids while Dad was away working and instilled in all of them her Christian values.

At the Age of 15, Ray became interested in music when his brother James and cousin Tommy Combs played 50's rock-and-roll and country music in a band. Ray's brother-in-law, Jim Waddell, gave Ray a saxophone and this got him started in the music business. He taught himself to play. A short time later, he joined his brother's band and they were together several years, playing concerts and making records.

Ray married in 1964, and moved to Elkin, N.C. Four years later, a daughter Kim, their only child, was born. Three years later, he wrote and recorded a song about her entitled "Dolls and Games." Daddy loved his little girl very much and still does.

He began writing country songs in the early 70's and decided to move his family to Nashville, Tennessee, in November, 1973, to pursue a career in song writing. While living in Nashville, Ray became very ill with a perforated ulcer and came close to death. He had two major operations within six months. While lying in the hospital bed, Ray realized he was staring hell in the face because he had never accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. At that point, he asked Jesus into his heart and was changed forever. Shortly after his illness, Ray gave up the secular music business and began writing Christian songs. He moved his family back to North Carolina and worked for some time as a promoter of Southern Gospel Concerts.

The Lord gave Ray his first chart song, entitled "The Jewels in satan's Mansion," during a dark time in his life when his marriage of twenty-nine years ended, in 1993. (The song was released worldwide on Glory Train Records in February of 2003.) He was able to get through it by the help of the Lord and his family. His daughter, Kim, her husband, Rev. Eddie Wooten, along with their two children (Joshua, six and Kayley, three) were kind enough to move in with him and make his big empty house a home again.

( Oh, and PawPaw Ray does not spoil his grandbabies! ...LOL)

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