Fay Ray, one of the last members of the "Silverbelles", has passed on September 14th, three days after her 94th birthday, at Kateri Residence, NYC. Fay was a wonderful person, loved by all her colleages and the people who knew her. Born in 1919 in Natchitoches, Louisiana, she got her first bite of the show business bug in 1937 when she joined the Hennies Brothers Carnival in Shreveport, Louisiana. Also in the show was her later lifelong friend Carnell Lyons with his act "The Three Rags of Rhythm". Carnell took her as a tap student and taught her what he knew about tap, and soon after Fay had her own act together, dancing in the night clubs of Kansas City with Carnell's trio. When she left the carnival in 1938, she went to Detroit and was hired by the famous Leonard Reed to work at the "Club Zombie" and later at the "Club Congo". Around 1945 she came to New York City and got her first job through Mable Lee working with Mable and "Pops and Louie" at the "Club Sudan" in Harlem. She also worked with Louis Jordan, Count Basie and many others. In the 1960s she worked a lot with the dance groups of Lon Fontaine in California, Puerto Rico and Japan. In 1966 she went to Europe, following Carnell Lyons who has already been living there since the mid 1950s, and worked as a single song and dance act. In 1969 she teamed up with the famous musician and comedian Bert Howell ("Howell and Bowser") touring Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In 1990 she joined the "Silverbelles", the legendary group of old time chorus girls founded by Bertye Lou Wood and Geraldine Kennedy, and who were the sensation of many festivals and other dance events. With the Silverbelles she appeared on the TV show "48 hours", worked several times at the Apollo Theater, and was honored with them at the University of Connecticut. In 2006 Heather Lyn MacDonald produced the great documentary "Been Rich All My Life" about the Silverbelles. In the same year Fay was also invited to teach and perform together with Karen Callaway Williams at the annual Tap City Festival which was great fun for all their students. Fay was a lovely person, an inspiration as a dancer and a character for everyone who met her. She's now together with her buddies from "the days" - Carnell, Buster, Harold, Leonard, Pete, Pearl, Rita, Cleo, Marion, Cholly, Bertye Lou, Ralph, Cookie and Brownie - having a ball. We will miss her very much!
 

-Kurt Albert