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| children= Steven R. Farabee<br>
| children= Steven R. Farabee<br>
David Lee Farabee
David Lee Farabee
|alma_mater=(1) Wichita Falls High School<br>
|alma_mater=(1) Wichita Falls High School<br>
(2) [[University of Texas]] at Austin<br>
(2) [[University of Texas]] at Austin<br>
}}
}}
'''Kenneth Ray Farabee''', known as '''Ray Farabee'' (November 22, 1932 – November 20, 2014) was an [[attorney]] in [[Austin]], [[Texas]], who served as a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] member of the state Senate from his native [[Wichita Falls]] from 1975 to 1988. He is credited with the authorship of 245 Senate bills that became law during his 13-year tenure.<ref name=tsc/> In 1985, he was the Senate President Pro Tempore. He is the father of formers state Representative David Lee Farabee of Wichita Falls.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wcmessenger.com/opinion/columns/EkVuVApFlpBpkyOFbO.php|author=Dave McNeely|title= "Representative David Farabee retiring a blow for Democrats"|date October 4, 2009|publisher=''Wise County Messenger''|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref>
'''Kenneth Ray Farabee''', known as '''Ray Farabee''' (November 22, 1932 – November 20, 2014), was an [[attorney]] in [[Austin]], [[Texas]], who served as a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] member of the state Senate from his native [[Wichita Falls]] from 1975 to 1988. He is credited with the authorship of 245 Senate bills that became law during his 13-year tenure.<ref name=tsc/> In 1985, he was the Senate President Pro Tempore. He is the father of former state Representative David Lee Farabee of Wichita Falls.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wcmessenger.com/opinion/columns/EkVuVApFlpBpkyOFbO.php|author=Dave McNeely|title= "Representative David Farabee retiring a blow for Democrats"|date October 4, 2009|publisher=''Wise County Messenger''|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref>
==Background==
==Background==
Farabee was born<ref name=tsc>{{cite web|url=http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?pers_id=7169|title=Kenneth Ray Farabee|publisher=cemetery.tx.us|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref> six weeks prematurely in Wichita Falls. His attending physician did not expect him to live through the night of his birth, but he survived.<ref name=autobio>''Ray Farabee: Making It Through the Night and Beyond: A Memoir'', 2009, ISBN 978-0-615-25762-4</ref> Well into the [[Great Depression]] years, he attended Alamo Elementary School and Zundelowitz Junior High School. He graduated in 1952 from Wichita Falls High School. During his junior and senior years of high school, he attended a [[YMCA]] youth program called Hi-Y at the Texas state capitol in Austin. The organization trained young people in various aspects of [[government]] service. Farabee hence developed an understanding of public affairs more than three decades before he entered the state Senate to succeed newly elected [[U.S. Representative]] Jack English Hightower of Vernon in Wilbarger County west of Wichita Falls.<ref name=farabee>{{cite web|url=http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2007/nov/03/a-man-called-fairabee-getting-started-making-an/|title=Jessica Langdon, "A Man Called 'Fairabee': Former Wichita Falls lawyer, legislator known as man of respect"|publisher=''Wichita Falls Times Record News''|date=November 3, 2007|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref> Farabee has been a high achiever throughout his life but confesses that he failed to make the coveted promotion to [[Boy Scouts|Eagle Scout]] in his youth,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-en/blogs/austin/outandabout/entries/2009/10/12/through_the_nig.html|author=Michael Barnes|title="Through the Night and Beyond with Ray Farabee, Part 1"|date=October 12, 2009|publisher=Austin360.com|accessdate=December 5, 2009; no longer on-line}}</ref> a goal achieved by his son David.
Farabee was born<ref name=tsc>{{cite web|url=http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?pers_id=7169|title=Kenneth Ray Farabee|publisher=cemetery.tx.us|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref> six weeks prematurely in Wichita Falls. His attending physician did not expect him to live through the night of his birth, but he survived.<ref name=autobio>''Ray Farabee: Making It Through the Night and Beyond: A Memoir'', 2009, ISBN 978-0-615-25762-4</ref> Well into the [[Great Depression]] years, he attended Alamo Elementary School and Zundelowitz Junior High School. He graduated in 1952 from Wichita Falls High School. During his junior and senior years of high school, he attended a [[YMCA]] youth program called Hi-Y at the Texas state capitol in Austin. The organization trained young people in various aspects of [[government]] service. Farabee hence developed an understanding of public affairs more than three decades before he entered the state Senate to succeed newly elected [[U.S. Representative]] Jack English Hightower of Vernon in Wilbarger County west of Wichita Falls.<ref name=farabee>{{cite web|url=http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2007/nov/03/a-man-called-fairabee-getting-started-making-an/|title=Jessica Langdon, "A Man Called 'Fairabee': Former Wichita Falls lawyer, legislator known as man of respect"|publisher=''Wichita Falls Times Record News''|date=November 3, 2007|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref> Farabee has been a high achiever throughout his life but confesses that he failed to make the coveted promotion to [[Boy Scouts|Eagle Scout]] in his youth,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-en/blogs/austin/outandabout/entries/2009/10/12/through_the_nig.html|author=Michael Barnes|title="Through the Night and Beyond with Ray Farabee, Part 1"|date=October 12, 2009|publisher=Austin360.com|accessdate=December 5, 2009; no longer on-line}}</ref> a goal achieved by his son David.
Read Granberry, parliamentarian of the Texas House of Representatives, heard Farabee at a youth speech event and urged him to attend the [[University of Texas]] at Austin, from which Farabee obtained his Bachelor of Business Administration and then [[Juris Doctor]]ate from the UT Law School. He managed to procure a small scholarship and lived in a $10-per-month barracks dormitory. He became acquainted with the then [exas Secretary of State John Ben Shepperd, for whom he worked when Shepperd served as the state attorney general]from 1953 to 1957.<ref name=farabee/> Farabee was the UT freshmen class president and later the student body president. He visited the [[University of Wisconsin]] at [[Madison Wisconsin|Madison]] as part of his student political activities. There he met his future first wife, the former [[Helen Farabee|Helen Jane Rehbein]],<ref name=helen>{{cite web|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ffa33|title=Helen Jane Rehbein Farabee|publisher=Tshaonline.org|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref> who became the mother of his two sons. Helen was the student body president at UW, a rare accomplishment for a young woman at that time. The couple married in 1958 after their graduations and Farabee's service in the [[United States Air Force]].<ref name=helen/>
Read Granberry, parliamentarian of the Texas House of Representatives, heard Farabee at a youth speech event and urged him to attend the [[University of Texas]] at Austin, from which Farabee obtained his Bachelor of Business Administration and then [[Juris Doctor]]ate from the UT Law School. He managed to procure a small scholarship and lived in a $10-per-month barracks dormitory. He became acquainted with the then [exas Secretary of State John Ben Shepperd, for whom he worked when Shepperd served as the state attorney general]from 1953 to 1957.<ref name=farabee/> Farabee was the UT freshmen class president and later the student body president. He visited the [[University of Wisconsin-Madison]] as part of his student political activities. There he met his future first wife, the former [[Helen Farabee|Helen Jane Rehbein]],<ref name=helen>{{cite web|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ffa33|title=Helen Jane Rehbein Farabee|publisher=Tshaonline.org|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref> who became the mother of his two sons. Helen was the student body president at UW, a rare accomplishment for a young woman at that time. The couple married in 1958 after their graduations and Farabee's service in the [[United States Air Force]].<ref name=helen/>
==State Senate service==
==State senator==
After thirteen years in private law practice in Wichita Falls, Farabee entered the 1974 Democratic primary for the state Senate. He defeated veteran State Representative Charles Finnell of Holliday in Archer County.<ref name=google>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ykEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=Ray+Farabee&source=bl&ots=9tybsGokUI&sig=o6hEDXAjyKLoWNW1xKX6OaalDeg&hl=en&ei=mkocS6biIYiWtgeh39XUAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CBwQ6AEwCTgo#v=onepage&q=Ray%20Farabee&f=false|title=Country Boys: When rural Democrats got together to fill a vacancy on the ballot, they weren’t about to choose a city girl|author=Patricia Kilday Heart|publisher=''Texas Monthly''|volume=16|issue=7|pages=90–95|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref>
After thirteen years in private law practice in Wichita Falls, Farabee entered the 1974 Democratic primary for the state Senate. He defeated veteran State Representative Charles Finnell of Holliday in Archer County.<ref name=google>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ykEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=Ray+Farabee&source=bl&ots=9tybsGokUI&sig=o6hEDXAjyKLoWNW1xKX6OaalDeg&hl=en&ei=mkocS6biIYiWtgeh39XUAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CBwQ6AEwCTgo#v=onepage&q=Ray%20Farabee&f=false|title=Country Boys: When rural Democrats got together to fill a vacancy on the ballot, they weren’t about to choose a city girl|author=Patricia Kilday Heart|publisher=''Texas Monthly''|volume=16|issue=7|pages=90–95|accessdate=December 5, 2009}}</ref>
The incumbent state senator, Jack Hightower, ran instead for the [[United States House of Representatives]] and unseated the [[Republican Party|Republican]] Robert "Bob" Price, who had been first elected to the Panhandle-area district in 1966. The U.S. House district was altered after the 1970 census to include Wichita Falls and [[Amarillo]] and territory in between in the same sprawling district.
The incumbent state senator, Jack Hightower, ran instead for the [[United States House of Representatives]] and unseated the [[Republican Party|Republican]] Robert "Bob" Price, who had been first elected to the Panhandle-area district in 1966. The U.S. House district was altered after the 1970 census to include Wichita Falls and [[Amarillo]] and territory in between in the same sprawling district.
Meanwhile, after the 1980 census, Farabee's District 30 encompassed a huge swath of North and West Texas, including part of [[Denton County, Texas|Denton County]] and all of his own Wichita, Wilbarger, [[Archer County, Texas|Archer]], [[Baylor County, Texas|Baylor]], [[Callahan County, Texas|Callahan]], [[Childress County, Texas|Childress]], [[Clay County, Texas|Clay]], [[Cooke County, Texas|Cooke]], [[Cottle County, Texas|Cottle]], [[Dickens County, Texas|Dickens]], [[Fisher County, Texas|Fisher]], [[Floyd County, Texas|Floyd]], [[Foard County, Texas|Foard]], [[Grayson County, Texas|Grayson]], [[Hardeman County, Texas|Hardeman]], [[Haskell County, Texas|Haskell]], [[Jack County, Texas|Jack]], [[Jones County, Texas|Jones]], [[Kent County, Texas|Kent]], [[King County, Texas|King]], [[Knox County, Texas|Knox]], [[Mitchell County, Texas|Mitchell]], [[Montague County, Texas|Montague]], [[Motley County, Texas|Motley]], [[Scurry County, Texas|Scurry]], [[Shackelford County, Texas|Shackelford]], [[Stonewall County, Texas|Stonewall]], [[Throckmorton County, Texas|Throckmorton]], and [[Young County, Texas|Young]] counties.
Meanwhile, after the 1980 census, Farabee's District 30 encompassed a huge swath of North and West Texas, including part of Denton County and all of his own Wichita County, as well as Wilbarger, Archer, Baylor, Callahan, Childress, Clay, Cooke, Cottle, Dickens, Fisher, Floyd, Foard, Grayson, Hardeman, Haskell, Jack, Jones, Kent, King, Knox, Mitchell, Montague, Motley, Scurry, Shackleford, Stonewall, Throckmorton, and Young counties.
Senator Farabee worked for passage of the Texas Natural Death Act, a law which "provides patients the opportunity to make their own end of life decisions... I got interested in medical ethics] There was a lot of technology that would keep people alive, and Texas didn't have a legal definition of death... There needed to be a statutory definition. I carried that legislation."<ref name=farabee/> He also supported bills to encourage organ donations.<ref name=farabee/>
Senator Farabee worked for passage of the Texas Natural Death Act, a law which "provides patients the opportunity to make their own end of life decisions... I got interested in medical ethics] There was a lot of technology that would keep people alive, and Texas didn't have a legal definition of death... There needed to be a statutory definition. I carried that legislation."<ref name=farabee/> He also supported bills to encourage organ donations.<ref name=farabee/>
Farabee is interred at the historic Texas State Cemetery in Austin. On her death, Mary Margaret Farabee will be interred beside him. Any Texas legislator and spouse qualify for burial there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?pers_id=7169|title=Kenneth Ray Farabee|publisher=cemetery.state.tx.us|accessdate=July 23, 2012}}</ref> Farabee died at his home in Austin, two days before his 82nd birthday.<ref>[http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/local-news/former-wichita-falls-senator-ray-farabee-dies_33721225 Former Wichita Falls Senator Ray Farabee dies]</ref>
Farabee is interred at the historic Texas State Cemetery in Austin. On her death, Mary Margaret Farabee will be interred beside him. Any Texas legislator and spouse qualify for burial there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?pers_id=7169|title=Kenneth Ray Farabee|publisher=cemetery.state.tx.us|accessdate=July 23, 2012}}</ref> Farabee died at his home in Austin, two days before his 82nd birthday.<ref>[http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/local-news/former-wichita-falls-senator-ray-farabee-dies_33721225 Former Wichita Falls Senator Ray Farabee dies]</ref>
==References==
==References==
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[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Texas]]