Ranger Exes Memorial - RHS Class of 1928

Ovesta McCleskey OVESTA ELLEN McCLESKEY CLAY, 90, of Fort Worth, TX, died on June 21, 2001. She was born on July 7, 1910 to James T. McCleskey. Her mother was Sula Langford who died in 1926. Hattie McCleskey was her step-mother. Ovesta attended Ranger High School in the Class of 1928 at Ranger, TX and married Comer Clay who later died in 2006. Her sister is Emma Leta McCleskey Bonner (RHS-1939). HUSBAND: E. COMER CLAY, 95, a native of Abilene, TX died on Feb. 3, 2006, with burial at Mount Zion Cemetery in Stephens County. A former professor at Texas Christian University, Mr. Clay was a teacher, a soldier, a scholar of government and politics and a person who knew the value of water conservation, every drop of it. He had a strong mind and a big heart -- someone who could have been a lawyer but decided to make less money and teach kids instead. Mr. Clay also could have sidestepped service during World War II because of his age and his pressing responsibilities at an Abilene school. But he enlisted anyway. Mr. Clay was born Dec. 22, 1910 to the late Valley Hill and E. Comer Clay. He graduated from Abilene High School in 1927, received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian College in 1931 and his master of arts degree from the University of Texas in 1937. He married Ovesta McCleskey in Abilene in 1937. Mr. Clay was 31 and a high school teacher when, in 1942, he enlisted in the Army and joined the war, in which he became a decorated soldier. At the end of his four years of duty, he enlisted in the Army Reserves and in the Texas Army National Guard, in which, in 1963, he earned the rank of full colonel. It was during his 28-year tenure at TCU, from 1948 to 1976, that Mr. Clay gained a reputation as a professor determined to teach his students about government and political science, whether they wanted to learn or not. He was preceded in death by his wife of 64 years, Ovesta McCleskey; and his sisters, Hettie Logan Newman and Mary Ellen Johnson. Mr. Clay is survived by his daughter, Linda Hoffer, and her husband, Bud; and two grandchildren, Tyson Clay Hoffer and Allison Hoffer Castillo.