Phillip "Ray" Brewton, 95 of Bryant, passed away on Tuesday, August 5, 2025 at Avantara in Lake Norden.
Memorial services were held at 2:00 P.M. on Monday, August 11, 2025 at Spirit Lake Presbyterian Church. Reverend Terri Akkerman officiated with music provided by Stephanie Sauder. The service was livestreamed via www.crawfordosthus.com.
Visitation was held from 4:00 - 7:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 10, 2025 at Crawford-Osthus Funeral Chapel in DeSmet. Burial at Spirit Lake Cemetery.
It all started in Goldonna, La. on March 24, 1930 with three-and-a-half inches of snow on the ground. Buford (Lep) Brewton walked three miles into town to get Dr. Joyner to help his wife, Modessa, deliver their first child. Phillip Ray was born that day, and the doctor was paid one live chicken for his services! So began Ray's life of hard work, good humor, stories and adventure.
Beginning at age five, Ray picked cotton for his dad and the neighbors. The summer he was 12, he took a train to Arkansas to be a truck driver hauling poles through the hills for the new REA line. He picked apples in Washington State, picked more cotton and after graduating high school joined the U.S. Air Force. There, he was trained as an electrician and mechanic. After his service time, Ray began working as a heavy equipment operator building gas and oil pipelines. He went on to Lake Charles, La. and worked for Cities Service Refinery for 21 years.
During this time, Ray married Effie Mae Dyer and always had at least two jobs to support his wife and five children. He built their home, had a lawn and landscaping business and owned two barges hauling gas and oil products through the Inter-coastal Waterway. He has a lifetime tankerman's license to load and unload all of these products. He lost his barges during the oil crisis of 1975, and to pay off his debt, Ray went to work as a foreman on the Alaskan pipeline. This began the work for various oil companies putting in pipelines and taking Ray around the world four times with several years spent in the Middle East.
One day in Saudi Arabia, Ray met Jesus on the road. Meeting Jesus face-to-face gave new life to Ray's spirit of kindness to become the gentle man of faith we know and love. He was a very active member of the Union Congregational Church of Christ in Bryant and the ministry of Prairie Retreat they sponsored. He was also a member of the Masonic Lodge #55 in De Smet, Scottish Rite in Yankton and El Riad Shrine in Sioux Falls.
Ray was an inspector and consultant for various companies in the Dakotas in the early 1980s. He married Rev. Marjie Bertsch, and together with her two children, they began building their home in the haymow of the barn on her family farm. They raised a variety of fowl, and while Marjie worked at church, Ray sold eggs, raised a huge garden and sold produce to neighbors and farmer's markets. They developed the Prairie Retreat and welcomed visitors to the farm from all over the world. Ray became everyone's favorite tour guide and storyteller, teaching the children about gathering eggs, gardening and patiently letting them help. He was known as "PaRay" to all the children that loved him. Ray also became the guard at the Bryant refuse site where he was able to greet all the people, tell stories and never met a person who wasn't a friend. He was an avid hunter, an excellent marksman and cook of Southern cuisine.
Ray leaves many memories to his wife Marjie of Bryant; son Brian (Judy) of Lake Charles, La.; daughters Tyrelle (Tommy) Cating of Baton Rouge,La.; Tonya (John) Veazey of Prairieville, La.; Lataine (Mark) Fleming of Sulphur, La.; and Diahn Landry of West Lake, La.; Marjie's children, Beth Holdridge of Blair, Neb. and Jeremy (Amber-Lily and Ava) Bertsch of Apple Valley, Minn.; 10 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.
Preceding him in death were his parents; sister Lolita Myers and former wife Effie.
Arrangements entrusted to Crawford-Osthus Funeral Chapel www.crawfordosthus.com
