Hall of Honor Inductee

Ray (Ora) Patterson grew up in Roswell and Clayton, New Mexico and Ina grew up near Dallas,

Texas. When she was in junior high her parents moved to Denver and her dad built houses in

Aurora and some are still there today. During WWII she and her mother were volunteering at

Fitzsimmons hospital and that is where she met Ray, a veteran who had been injured in Italy.

He was 18 when he entered the war and 19 when he came back to the hospital. He and Ina fell

in love and six weeks later when she was 16 went to get a marriage license. Everyone called her

Tex and when they had to write their names, Ray turned around and said, “Tex, what is your

name?” Ray passed away in 2013 at the age of 83.

Ray played the guitar, mandolin and fiddle but his favorite instrument was the mandolin. He

taught Ina to play guitar and to this day she uses the ‘Ina G’ which he taught her as a joke. They

sang old time duets and began their career on the radio in Roswell, NM in 1947.

They played on many radio shows in the East and West and performed with and were friends

with the greatest musicians in country and bluegrass. They recorded three records for County

Sales and one can be downloaded from I Tunes.

In their later years when folk and traditional music made a comeback, they were very popular,

performing in California folk festivals and colleges. When health problems made it difficult for them to perform in public they continued to entertain musician friends and and jam at festivals.

They performed all but one of the first eight years at the Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival at the Adams County Fairgrounds. This was their bio at that time. Ray & Ina have been playing and singing their style of music since the late forties. They categorize their music as Mountain Folk, but it is very similar to that of the Monroe Bro., the Blue Sky Boys and the Delmore Bros. In other words they are pioneers in a field of music which can be classified as pre-bluegrass.

At the time of being inducted at 95, Ina continued to entertain bluegrass musicians and remembers just about everywhere she and Ray performed.