The Odessa American, Odessa, Texas, 14 Oct 2001, Sun • Page 19 Obit: Hubbard-Kelly Home. Funeral - i ; yfy Ray Yancey CRANE Ray Yancey, 81, of Odessa, and formerly of Crane, died on Friday, Oct. 12, 2001, at Odessa Hospice House. Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2001, at the Crane County Cemetery with the Rev. David Howard officiat-. ing. Services are under the direction of Shaffer-Nichols Funeral Home. Mr. Yancey was bom to Carl and Fannie Hughey Yancey on March 23, 1920, in Emory, Texas. He married Lila Lee Earp on March 23, 1943. in Crane. He was a World War II Air Force veteran. He was a lease ' operator for Mobile Oil Company for 31 years in Crane and Midland before his retirement. He was a member of the West Odessa First Baptist Church. He was preceded in death by his parents, his daughter, Carolyn Raye Yancey-Bostwick on Nov. 25, 1991, a brother, Alvin D. Yancey, and a sister, Rubye Robinson. Survivors include his wife, Lila Yancey, of Odessa; a son, Bryan Lee Yancey and his wife, Becky, of Odessa; three grandchildren, John Cal Bostwick, of Frisco, Texas, Sonya Renee Bostwick Northcott, of Midland and Kevin Wayne Yancey, of Odessa; four great-grandchildren, Courtney Leigh Bostwick and Devyn Cole Bostwick, both of Frisco, and Kolton Evan Cotton and Kade Ranee Cotton, . both of Midland; and two sisters, Bessie Mae Crofford and Mozell Mitchell, both of Lone Oak, Texas. Memorial may be made to the Hospice House of Odessa, 903 N. Sam Houston, Odessa, Texas 79761. (b) Crane High School Graduates: CHS 1962 Caroly Yancey & CHS 1976 Bryan Yancey. (c) The Odessa American, Odessa, Texas, 18 May 1986, Sun • Page 13: Ray Yancey spent more than 30 years of his life sweating in the oil fields. Today, the 66-year-old relaxes in retirement and re-creates West Texas oil scenes in miniature. He toils in a shop in his Crane County home about 35 miles south of Odessa to fashion windmills, pump jacks and oil derricks from scrounged spare parts. Yancey creates his sculptures from nuts, bolts, metal pieces, horseshoe nails, 10-penny nails, ball bearings, sparkplugs, empty fruit cans and other objects. The work is done with needle-nosed pliers, a welding torch and tin snips and occasionally itty-bitty tweezers. Some of his work is serious craftsmanship. He's proud of a replica of the first oil derrick erected in Crane in 1926, representing the Church and Fields strike. t Yancey reduced the 123-foot tall derrick to an 18-inch model, using nails welded end to end. The derrick, replete with a work platform and ladder, bears a coat of silver paint. His pump jacks, about 6 inches long, have been displayed at the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland. Some models even have a wind-up mechanism to make the pump head move. Finding a makeshift motor for the pump jack was something of a chore for Yancey, but his recollection of the solution helps illustrate his sense of humor. "I had gone into the Strike-It-Rich store in Odessa some time back," Yancey said, "when I saw these toy monkeys for sale there. "They were wind-up kids' toys, you know, the kinds where the monkey arms go up and down like this." He mimicked the toys, holding out his arms and flailing them about. Yancey said he bought more than 20 of the monkeys, took them home and removed the wirid-up mechanisms and installed them in the pump jacks. Some of his other comical sculptures...