LeRay, George Edward

Submitted by Mike Miller

George Edward Le Ray has been a registered pharmacist for over thirty years, and was one of the pioneer druggists of De Ridder. He is proprietor of the Ideal Drug Company of that city, and one of the prominent men of affairs there.

He was born December 15, 1869, on a farm hear Brusly Landing, in West Baton Rouge Parish, his parents being Neumedia E. and Ernestine (Courtard) Le Ray, who were natives of the same parish and spent their lives as farmers in that locality.

George Edward Le Ray, one of a family of six children, attended publicschools, and up to the age of twenty-one was on the home farm. Following that he worked in a sugar mill and in other employment while studying pharmacy at night, and on November 10, 1893, after examination by the state board was given a certificate as a registered pharmacist. The following year he managed the store at Brusly of C. K. Schwing, and under whom he had studied pharmacy. Mr. Le Ray in 1894 came out to Southwest Louisiana, and at West Lake was manager and a stockholder in the West Lake Drug Company. Following that he was in business at Sulphur with Dr. D. S. Perkins, and in 1905 located at De Ridder, where he was first associated with Dr. S. T. Roberts in the drug business and later in business for himself. For four years from 1908 he was a druggist at Brownsville, Texas, but in 1912 returned and established the Ideal Drug Store at De Ridder. He has made this one of the best equipped drug stores in the southwestern quarter of the state. Mr. Le Ray also owns a fig and orange grove near De Ridder. He has served as a member of the city council, belongs to the Chamber of Commerce. and is affiliated with De Ridder Lodge No. 271, Free and Accepted Masons; Hines Chapter No. 54, Royal Arch Masons, and the Knights of Pythias. He married at West Lake, Louisiana, Mattie Iles, who was born at Sugartown, daughter of Dempsey Iles, and member of a prominent family, some record of whom appears elsewhere in this publication. Mrs. Le Ray is an active worker in the Baptist Church. They have two sons, Travis and Harold.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 282-283, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.