In Honor of Bernice A. Ray

Mrs. Lu Sterling Martin, Hanover Board Chair in 1969, said in a recent interview, “When it came time to name the school, the Board decided  “No one,” Mrs. Martin said, “had been more influential in education…” than Bunny Ray. “She had formed the basis of education for a generation of people.”they wanted to name it for a living person.”

The School Board announced their intention to name the school, the “Bernice A. Ray” School at a retirement gathering for Bunny Ray in 1969.

The Hanover Report of the Hanover School Board recorded the moment: “It is my pleasure to announce that, in honor of Miss Ray’s years of outstanding service to the children of Hanover, the members of the Hanover School Board have voted to name our new elementary school The Bernice A. Ray School.” (Lu Sterling Martin, Chair) “It was the high point of the evening,” Mrs. Martin said. “Nothing pleased Bunny more, not often can we honor that kind of leadership.”

In September of 1970, the first group of children burst through the welcoming doors, and a new era began.

Whenever anyone enters the building, one of the first things to catch the eye is an oil painting of Bunny Ray, a gray-haired woman with very bright blue eyes, poised, sitting in a statuesque manner, greeting the children, as she had done for 29 years, forever after.