Dr. Thurman Ray Oral History

Object number2009.001.0015

Date03/11/2009

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Dr. Thurman Ray

Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file)

DimensionsDuration: 30 Minutes

Terms

Collections

DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Dr. Thurman Ray. A Dallas optometrist, Ray treated Jack Ruby as a patient from the 1950s through Ruby's death in 1967. During Jack Ruby's incarceration at the Dallas County Jail, he repeatedly broke or damaged his eyeglasses. Ray recalled creating new pairs that were provided to Ruby's sister, Eva Grant. Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on March 11, 2009 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is thirty minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

Dr. Thurman Ray passed away on April 9, 2020. The Museum's Al Maddox Collection includes what is believed to be Jack Ruby's last pair of eyeglasses (2004.008.0001). According to Maddox, then a Dallas County deputy sheriff, Ruby used a pair of London Fog eyeglasses in his room at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Maddox retained those glasses after Ruby's passing on January 3, 1967, and later donated them to The Sixth Floor Museum in 2006. - Stephen Fagin, Curator