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Through the Night & Beyond with Ray Farabee, Part 3

By Michael Barnes | Monday, October 12, 2009, 01:52 PM

For more of ‘Through the Night & Beyond with Ray Farabee,’ scroll down to previous posts, or go here for Part 1 and Part 2.

Although a witness to the period, Ray Farabee would not have landed, pseudonymously, in Billy Lee Brammer’s “The Gay Place,” the sprawling political novel about power-, sex- and booze-addled Austin in the late 1950s. A straight arrow, he proudly belonged to the Phi Delta Gamma fraternity at the University of Texas, yet avoided college overindulgences, thanks to part-time jobs and his Baptist upbringing.

“I’m the product of the Depression,” he says. “Also a product of working in a way that teenagers don’t have these days - throwing papers, working in grocery stories, loading box cars.”

If working hard left him with life-long empathy for his fellow humans, his rock-ribbed Baptist background somewhat confounded him, especially as his world view widened.

“Will Rogers, then the most famous man in the world, gave a speech at Baylor University,” he recalls. “The college leaders sat on the front row. Rogers said: ‘Members of the board of trustees are here. I want to compliment them because, the more you educate young people, the fewer Baptists you’re going to get.’”

Although self-identified as a conservative Democrat in the state senate, back when that faction was dominant in Texas government, Farabee believes civil rights and the fight against racial bigotry were among the signal advances of his times.

“I am an optimist,” he once said. “If I ever quit being an optimist, I’ll become a Republican.”

Farabee elaborated on this bit of humor later in life: “Despite my closer proximity to the Grim Reaper and widespread cynicism about government and politics, I remain an optimist - and a Democrat. After all, I made it through the night of Nov. 22, 1932 and beyond. I have had a life of wonderful opportunities, meaningful work, and am blessed with a fine family. Life has been, and is, good.”

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