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Obituary

Obituary for Charley Ray Maxey

Charley was born on May 17, 1930 in Creta Oklahoma to Pearl Lewis Maxey and Nanny Jane (Akers) Maxey. As a child Charley attended the local school in Olustee Oklahoma where he lived with his parents and five older siblings. After meeting and falling in love with Norma June Billington, Charlie joined the National Guard in 1949. Due to the Korean conflict the National Guard was soon federalized and Charley was dispatched to Fort Polk Louisiana and then Hokkaido Japan for training as part of the… U.S. Army’s 245th heavy tank battalion attached to the 45th Infantry Division. Despite being seasick the entire month long journey to Hokkaido, Charley was promoted to Staff Sergeant enroute. After nine months of training in Japan Charley was ordered to South Korea where he remained as a tank mechanic until receiving an honorable discharge on May 13, 1952. On August 23, 1952 Charley Ray and Norma June were married in Hollis Oklahoma. They moved to Johnson, Kansas and Charley landed a mechanic job at a local Hudson car dealership where he was also able to drive race cars sponsored by the dealership. But a better job opportunity assembling B-47’s and B-52’s for the Boeing Aircraft Company soon lured them to Wichita, Kansas where they stayed for five years.
In 1957 Charley loaded his wife and two sons, ages four and one into a 1953 Hudson Wasp and drove to Wasco, California where he worked for C.F. Billington in the grain harvesting industry until 1959 when he began what would become a thirty three year career working at Bozarth’s Atlantic Richfield Service station located at the corner of Hwy 46 and Poplar Ave.
In 1962 a third son was born and the family was complete. Charley was a member and past commander of VFW post #6742 and also a member of VFW post #94. Activities that Charley found enjoyable at different times in his life include: hunting, fishing, race car driving, dancing, managing a teenage country/rock band, inciting friendly arguments, vacationing in Tahoe, road trips back east, gun repair, presidential campaign, inciting friendly arguments, gambling, any form of buying/selling swapping or trading that resulted in haggling, giving/getting hugs, patrolling Wasco streets, and of course inciting in friendly arguments. Charley was an auto mechanic or in his words “A doctor of motors” and he worked on many a car, but he also pumped a lot of gas, checked under countless hoods and washed thousands of windshields and in so doing met and befriended a large portion of Wasco’s residents as well as a goodly number of travelers passing through town on Hwy 46 who left the station feeling better than when they arrived.
Charley was proceeded in death by his parents, Pearl and Nanny Maxey; brothers, Lester and Emory and sisters, Minnie and Juanita.
He is survived by three sons, Mitchell, Mark and Scott; two granddaughters, Melissa Gary and Husband Jack and Melinda Maxey; great grandchildren, Kaylee and Karissa Hill, Jackson Gary, Mya Harris, Rex Woods and Ace Woods; one sister, Gwen Paver and husband John and many nieces and nephews and their families.
A graveside memorial service under the direction of Peters Funeral Home will be held at Wasco Memorial Park on Saturday, March 11, 2017 at 10am for Charley Maxey, 86 of Wasco who passed away March 3, 2017 at home. Jimmy Nixon of Pixley Missionary Baptist Church of Pixley, California will officiate the service and interment will follow.