Edward Wiley Ray

Edward Wiley Ray (born December 21, 1926 in Franklin, North Carolina) better known as "Eddie Ray" is the Operation Director and Vice Chairman of the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame Museum. He was an African American record company executive, record producer, songwriter, author, and an inductee in the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. He was also a United States Presidential Appointee under Ronald Reagan serving as Commissioner and Chairman of the Copyright Royalty Tribunal.

Ray was born and raised in Franklin, North Carolina which is in the western mountain region of North Carolina. He was the third youngest of eight children born to his father, Andrew Ray, owner of a janitorial service and his mother, Grace Ray, who was a homemaker.

Ray had to leave Franklin to attend high school at Laurinburg Institute in Laurinburg, North Carolina because Franklin was segregated and did not have a high school for African American children.

After graduating from high school in 1944, Ray was accepted into an Army Reserve Specialized Training Program at Howard University in Washington, DC. Upon becoming 18 years of age he was inducted into the regular Army and then applied for Army Officer Candidate School. However, he was unable to pass the vision test because of formations of cataracts on both his eyes. After only a few months in the regular Army, Ray was discharged from the Army and in early 1945 moved to Milwaukee where he got his first job in the music industry as a stock boy at Decca Records Distributing Company.

In November 1945, Ray moved to Los Angeles and in early 1946 began working for Aladdin Records, a major, independent record company, as an assistant shipping clerk. Aladdin was owned by two brothers, Leo and Eddie Mesner both of whom became Ray’s mentors in the music industry. Some of the major recording artists on Aladdin at that time included, Johnny Moore, The Three Blazers featuring Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, The Five Keys, Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet.

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