Elizabeth Kathryn Ray, known from childhood as Zip, a longtime resident of Aiken, S.C., who taught for many years in the Aiken County school system, died June 14, 2013, in hospice care at the Mildred L. Smith Health Care Center at Rolling Green Village in Greenville, S.C. She was 91 years old and was the widow of Dennie Ezell Ray, Jr., who moved with his family to Aiken in 1952 to work at the DuPont-A.E.C. Savannah River Plant. Born in Denver, Colo., on July 15, 1921, to Lelah Nell Beamer Smith and Frank Jay Smith, Mrs. Ray spent her early years on the Ken-Caryl Ranch in Littleton, Colo., which was managed by her father. The family lived for a few years near Chicago, then settled in Thermopolis, Wyo., where her father managed the nearby Padlock Ranch, then the largest ranch in Wyoming. As a child and young woman, Mrs. Ray was both a ranch girl who spent much time as possible on horseback and an accomplished classical musician, like her brothers, the late Barton Jay Smith and the late Stanford Sydney Smith. She studied both piano and violin, first with her mother. She graduated from Hot Springs County High School in 1938 and was Queen of the Hot Springs County Rodeo in 1940. Mrs. Ray attended Vassar College for a year, then earned a bachelor's degree in music education from the music school at Northwestern University in 1942. She was a junior high school band director in the suburbs of Chicago before her marriage to Mr. Ray, of Jackson, Tenn., in 1943. The wedding was held in La Jolla, Calif., where Mr. Ray was stationed as a naval officer in World War II. She followed Mr. Ray to bases in Florida and Connecticut. Mr. Ray returned to his prewar job with DuPont in Clinton, Iowa, where their two oldest children, Cornelia Claiborne Ray and Kathryn Richmond Ray White, were born. Her son, Stanford Ezell Ray, was born in Augusta, Ga., after the family moved to Aiken. Mrs. Ray became a substitute teacher in the early 1960s, sometimes filling in for the bandmaster at Aiken High School. She later taught elementary classes full time at Millbrook Elementary School, then became a classroom music teacher, first at Aiken Elementary School and later traveling to a number of Aiken County Schools, visiting as many as 1,000 students a year. She instilled a lifelong love of the fun of reading and music of all kinds in many of her students. She was also briefly a real estate agent and a Girl Scout leader. She was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority and was a past president of several chapters of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic and educational organization, which she joined at 18, helping to organize two P.E.O. chapters in Aiken as well as one in Clinton, Iowa. Mr. Ray died in 1996. Mrs. Ray's daughter Kathryn (Larry) died in 2008. Mrs. Ray survived by her daughter Claiborne, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; her son, Stan (Cynthia), of Simpsonville (Greenville), S.C.; two granddaughters, Deanna Ray Guyton (Aaron), of Wake Forest, N.C., and Samantha Leigh Ray, of Gatlinburg, Tenn.; her sisters-in-law Harriet Holdredge Smith, of Cheyenne, Wyo., and Ruth Ray Mitton, of New York City; her niece, Monta Jean Ramirez-Smith (Carlos), of Cheyenne; her nephew, Franklin S. Smith, of Rock Springs, Wyo., as well as a great-niece and great-nephew and a great-great niece. She was a member for many years of St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church in Aiken; Funeral services will be held at 11:00 am Friday, June 21, 2013 at St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church, burial will follow in the church cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6-8 pm Thursday, June 20, 2013 at GEORGE FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION CENTER. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to St. Thaddeus or the Aiken County S.P.C.A. .