Free Press –
Ray Foulke
Dear Friends,
Good morning. We knew something was wrong when we walked into the Karlton Café for breakfast last Sunday. Ray Foulke and his daughter Anne Hellmann weren’t at their usual booth. Mighty Betsy, her sister Barbara, daughter Catherine and I always enjoy visiting with them each week.
We were shocked to learn that he’d died suddenly that very day. He was only 84.
I say, “only,” because Ray certainly didn’t look his age. The Free Press obituary accurately stated that Ray was known for his boyish grin, his fun-loving personality, and his generous nature.
Anyone 50 years and older, who’s lived in the Quakertown area for generations, knew and respected Ray Foulke. He served his community on the borough council; was a charter member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce (J. C’s); and the Parent Teacher Association during the 1950’s and 1960’s when his children were growing up. Ray was an active member of the American Legion.
His daughter, Ann Hellmann, and I had a wonderful chat about him. She told me that a massive stroke felled him last Friday morning and his condition quickly worsened. Death took him into the next world.
Had Ray survived the stroke, doctors predicted that he would not have been able to swallow, forcing him to remain on life support. He was lucky that the end came fast. It could have been a lingering death.
Ann told me that even though the stroke had paralyzed him, Ray kept smiling. A lover of chocolate candy, he asked the family to feed him chocolate intravenously! We attended his viewing last Thursday night. A Hershey chocolate bar lay on his hand. Although long lines led to the Naugle Funeral Home, the atmosphere was spirited and uplifting. I suggested to Ann that it reminded me of old home week. As friends left the viewing, each received a small, wrapped ball of chocolate.
When I was a kid, I remember Ray Foulke as a pillar of strength at the old Reformed Church Sunday School at 5th and Broad Streets. He held the treasurer duties while attorney Clair Biehn (father of Bucks County Judge Kenneth G. Biehn) was the Sunday school superintendent.
Reverend Paul T. Stoudt led the congregation in the 1930’s through the 1950’s. Pastor Stoudt always impressed my family. He was the only cleric that we’d ever seen who could recite the Old and New Testament biblical lessons from memory.
Long before World War II, Ray Foulke’s family had a farm near what is now the Country Square Shopping Center. Route 309 had not been built. Ann told me that her father had fond memories of plowing the fields on that farm.
And I remember Ray’s West End Meat Market where he was the proprietor in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Each week, he’d give me specials to run in Free Press advertisements. It was fun having conversations with him.
Ray was very proud of his 17th Century heritage. The Foulkes were Welsh Quakers, direct descendents of the founding Pennsylvania Quakers who came to the new world as part of William Penn’s “Holy Experiment.” That people could govern themselves in harmony and live peacefully together was a unique concept…it was also known as the Peaceable Kingdom.
Quakers oppose war. So it was no surprise that Ray’s father was not happy that Ray joined the U.S. Navy in February 1943. For three years, he served on the destroyer USS Nields in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Pacific theaters. His ship escorted President Roosevelt’s convoy as it headed toward the epic conference at Yalta.
During D-Day, Ray’s ship pounded German positions on the beaches of Normandy. In preparation for the landings, the USS Nields fired 800, five-inch shells at enemy targets. (For those without a military past, a five-inch shell was awesome…five inches in diameter.)
When Ray returned from the Navy, his farming days were over. Serious business lay ahead...but not so serious as to keep him from learning how to fly. Ann told me that her father loved maneuvering small planes through 360-degree loops and death spirals. That would have been fun to see…but probably nerve wracking for his family.
Ray lived with Ann and Eric Hellmann for 11 years. Ray wanted to spare his family from the agony of end of life decisions. So he prearranged his own funeral. That was so typical of him.
“We were lucky to have him for as long as we did,” Ann told me. And the community, that he lived and worked in, and served for these 84 years, has been fortunate to know him. We’ll miss that genuine happy, smiling face.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith