Ray Corral

October 11, 1929 - October 20, 2014

RAY CORRAL CELEBRATION OF LIFE Ray was born to Ann Demarbiex McCowin and Manuel Corral in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 11, 1929 and went up to be with the Lord in Fontana, California on October 20, 2014 at home. He was 85 years old. Ray lived a full life. He lived with his grandmother, Ramona Soto, alternating with his mother. His education suffered with the above living arrangements, that he left school at the age of 15 from Chaffey High School, Ontario, California. He worked in the ranches in Upland picking fruit. On June 7, 1947, at 17-1/2 years old, he joined the Navy. While in the Navy, he visited Hong Kong, went through the Panama Canal, based at Norfolk, Virginia. From here, he was able to visit the states on the east coast, i.e., New York City. He was at the Empire State Building where he had a photo taken of him at the bar. When he was due to be discharged, the Korean War broke out, and he was held over for eighteen months. During this time, he was stationed in Japan. His ship would take army and marine personnel to Korea. One of his duties was to land our troops in Inchon, Korea. He handled all aspects of the boat, steering, dropping the ramp, hoping that the boat would not be blown up. He received an Honorable Discharge on September 6, 1951 at Seattle, Washington. He served a total of 4 years 3 months. He rarely spoke of his experiences during the Korean War. He enrolled at Metropolitan High School and received his high school diploma on January 30, 1953. From here, he took Painting and Decorating classes at Trade Tech in Los Angeles. He succeeded completing these courses while holding a full-time job at Good-Year. On December 11, 1953, he married Virginia Ybarra and had a son, Roland Levine. Roland has two children: grandson Trevor Levine and granddaughter Elyse Levine. On June 13, 1958, Friday, he met Rosie Reyes at the Hollywood Palladium where Harry James was playing. This became a joke between Ray and Rosie—that it was a bad luck day—lasting 55 years. They were married in Las Vegas on January 3, 1959. They had two daughters: Cindy and Gabe Ochoa, Monica and Anthony Nuno, three grandsons-Gabriel Ochoa, Anthony Ray Nuno, and Erik Jeffrey Nuno. Ray’s siblings are: Rachel Arroyo, Albert Burgos, Sylvia DeRosa, and Manuel Corral. He had numerous nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends. As a young boy, he would listen to the big bands on the radio when he was supposed to be asleep. His love of the big bands stayed with him until his last days on earth. Anyone who knew Ray can attest to this fact. His main complaint was that there were not any big bands that could play as well as the swing bands of the 30’s and 40’s such as: Glenn Miller, Harry James, the Dorsey Brothers to name a few. Ray’s love of good music crossed over to his dancing. He loved to dance swing, cha cha, and mambo. He always requested swing songs from the 40’s and 50’s, Latin numbers from the 50’s, i.e. Papa Loves Mambo, Mambo No. 5, Patricia to name a few. He also liked R&B’s i.e., Corina, Corina, MackThe Knife, etc. During his last week, we put on Master Classics Swing for him to hear. We all love Ray and will miss him very much. We know that he is waiting for us in heaven.