Born:

 With great sadness, the family of Louise Conover Spray announces her death after a short illness at the age of 87. She is survived by her loving husband of 65 years, Paul Ellsworth Spray, MD, a retired former orthopedic surgeon who practiced in Oak Ridge since coming here in 1950, her children, David Conover Spray (PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY; wife Eliana Scemes), Thomas Laton Spray MD, Chief, Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, PA), Lynn Spray Branham (MSW, lead social worker, Minneapolis School System, MN; husband Tom) and her grandchildren, Christopher John Spray, Laura Carson Spray, Emily Louise Branham, Amanda M. Spray, and Elizabeth Elaine Branham.
Louise Spray was born in Pittsburgh, PA, on May 1, 1921, and attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she maintained a straight A average in her BA degree and was Valedictorian of her Class of 1943. She would later complete one year of study toward a Master’s degree in Social Work at the University of Tennessee. Her interests and time commitment throughout her life focused on family, home and service organizations, and welcoming visitors to her home, including Luigi Bazzano Ambrosini, an American Field Service high school exchange student from Uruguay. She became sort of an honorary grandmother to the family of Dr. Luu Huy Dang, a physician with whom Paul worked in Vietnam and who Paul helped become established with his family in this country. She traveled widely with Paul to international medical meetings. She went and stayed with him on several volunteer medical programs sponsored by Orthopedics Overseas, Care-Medico, and the International College of Surgeons. She spent about one month with him on such programs in Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan and Kenya.
Two organizations to which she contributed much of her time were the United Church of oak Ridge and YWCA. At the University of Pittsburgh, she was president of the YWCA 1942-43, in 1943-44 was Director of YMCA’s teen age program in Washington, DC, and in 1944-45 she held the same position in Brooklyn, NY, where she also established and interracial program for area teens. In Oak Ridge, Louise Spray was a charter member of the YWCA in 1954 and was the local group’s first secretary. In the intervening years, she served on the YWCA board of directors and on many of its committees, and in 2002 received the Oak Ridge YWCA Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of her longstanding contributions to this organization. Louise Spray was actively involved innumerable other volunteer activities in Oak Ridge, including the hospital gift shop, the United Church and UNCOR and UNICEF of the United Nations. She was a modest, kind, generous, giving friend to all, a devoted life partner of Paul, an inspirational supportive parent and grandparent, who is loved and will be missed by all whose lives she touched.
In lieu of flowers contributions to her memory may be addressed to the United Church Chapel on the Hill or to the local chapter of the YWCA.
A memorial service will be Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 10:00 am at United Church Chapel on the Hill with Rev. Boyd Carter officiating. Online messages may be sent to www.martinoakridgefuneralhome.com
Martin Oak Ridge Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements