Eddie Ray Hammond was born on April 2, 1937 in Echo, Louisiana, the fourth of 13 children of James Hammond and Annie Mae Edwards Hammond. He departed this life on the evening of Saturday, May 23, 2020. Visitation will be held Saturday, May 30, 2020 from 9am -10:45am at Winnfield Funeral Home of Alexandria. Graveside services will be held at 11:00 am at Garden of Memories Cemetery with Pastor William Vogt officiating. Eddie, called "Ray" by many, was born to sharecroppers in rural Louisiana. He accepted Jesus Christ at a young age. He and his siblings all helped their parents work the land. Eddie always told stories of picking cotton and vegetables, fishing, and hunting. Eddie also recounted life in the segregated South to his family and friends, making sure they understood what black people had to endure. He married Mary "Murl" LaCour on August 1, 1959, from which they had two children, Jason and Jennifer. He instilled in his children the power of the vote, and he made sure to vote in every election. He was a reserve deputy for the Rapides Parish Sheriffs Department from 1984-1990. He also retired from Proctor & Gamble in 1996, after 27 years of service, where he loved operating his forklift. He had also worked at Louisiana Industries. He thought himself a cowboy, loved country music and old Westerns, driving his truck and motorcycle, growing and tending to his vegetable garden. Eddie Ray made the best pecan candy and pecan pies, enjoyed frying fish, cooking mustard greens and cornbread, as well as all manner of country cooking. Everyone who knew him knows how much he loved watermelon, too. Especially in his retirement years, he loved traveling to visit family and friends, receiving visitors at his home, and mowing his grass on one of several "lawn mows." He is preceded in death by his parents, James and Annie Mae Hammond, his wife, Mary "Murl" LaCour Hammond, three sisters: Ruthie Lee Hammond, Edna Mae OQuin, and Elizabeth Hammond, and four brothers: James Hammond, Jr., Richard Dean Hammond, Leroy Hammond, and John Henry Hammond. Left to mourn Mr. Hammonds passing are his children: Jason Hammond (Shalanda), Jennifer Hammond, David "Joe" Gray (Mary), Sheila Gray, and Sylvia Nelson. Eddie Ray will be lovingly remembered by his siblings: Mary Lee Hammond, Robert Lee Hammond (Gennie), Dorothy Jean Boyer, Alice Fay Hammond, and Stephen Hammond, his godfather, Charles Henry Christophe (Marie), his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, his special godchild, Pamela Hynson McDonald, a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. He will also be greatly missed by Marilyn Young, to whom his family is eternally grateful for her dedicated love and care. Please keep the Hammond family lifted in Prayer. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Eddie Ray Hammond, please visit our floral store.