Ed Gray, a longtime Little Rock newspaperman who loved books, animals and proper use of the English language, died July 2 at age 69. Ruebel Funeral Home posted his obituary on Wednesday.
A man of great nervous energy and an evangelist for the books of Charles Portis, he could be as hard-headed as he was big-hearted and sharp-minded. After years on the copy desk of the Arkansas Gazette, he joined the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, where he was my boss before becoming books editor and editor of the Sunday Perspective section.
Gray was born near Pottsville — in a chicken coop, he claimed — the ninth of 10 children who grew up poor. Max Brantley, in a blog post for the Arkansas Times, recalled his humor and his intellect, as well as a 5-gallon bucket of rum-raisin ice cream that he once brought to a Gazette Christmas potluck. I remember his zeal for deadlines, which drove him to rattle your chair if you weren’t moving the news along fast enough. “He never saw stray animals, because he always adopted them, and never saw a homeless person without food or drink, because he provided it,” the Ruebel obituary said.
He is survived by a son, Watkins Fulk-Gray, and siblings Johnny and Pearl.
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