Centenarian participates in Mesa rededication — after attending original 1927 dedication
Maxine Ray Steiner, 96, and her brother Oakley Ray, 101, gather in front of the Mesa Arizona Temple after attending the rededication in Mesa, Arizona, on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. The siblings also attended the first dedication of the temple 94 years ago, on Oct. 23, 1927.
|Credit: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Centenarian participates in Mesa rededication — after attending original 1927 dedication
Maxine Ray Steiner, 96, and her brother Oakley Ray, 101, gather in front of the Mesa Arizona Temple after attending the rededication in Mesa, Arizona, on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. The siblings also attended the first dedication of the temple 94 years ago, on Oct. 23, 1927.
|Credit: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
MESA, Arizona — Oakley J Ray, 101, was among a number of longtime Latter-day Saints who attended both the original 1927 dedication of the Mesa Arizona Temple and its Sunday, Dec. 12, rededication.
The Mesa centenarian was featured in an recent Church News article, that included a photo from the 1927 dedication day where he recognized himself as a 7-year-old boy in overalls standing near the front of a large gathering of Church leaders and members on the temple grounds.
“That little boy outside there is me,” he remembers saying after recognizing himself in the photo.
He joined 96-year-old sister Maxine Ray Steiner and children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren for family photos beyond the northwest corner of the Mesa temple, near where the 1927 photo had been taken.
Ray’s attendance at Sunday’s rededication was uncertain less than two months ago when he fell at his home and broke his leg, requiring surgery to reset the bone with a stabilizing rod and then hospitalization with COVID-19 pandemic precautions limiting visitors.