Miami Herald - Monday, December 14, 1992
John Donnelly, Herald Staff Writer

He and his two younger brothers, Robert, 14, and Randy, 13, who also are infected with HIV, were at the center of a Florida and national controversy in 1986 when the Arcadia School Board barred them from school because they were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. "He died peacefully at home, in his sleep," said his father, Clifford Ray, who was with the family at the boy's bedside, along with Ricky's friend and former fiance, Wenonah Lindberg.

"He went very quickly, and it was where he wanted to be," said his mother, Louise. "He wanted to be at home; he wanted to be with his family."

The teenager, who had been unable to eat solid food or sit up and needed an oxygen mask to help with his breathing, died about 3:45 a.m. Sunday of multiple organ failure, Dr. Jerry Barbosa said.

"Obviously, it was not unexpected, but it was sudden and quick," said Judith Kavanaugh, the family's attorney in Sarasota, where the Rays lived before moving to Orlando earlier this year. "He was conscious to the very end. The family had an opportunity to tell him how much they loved him."

His family will continue his efforts to educate others about AIDS and fight for a cure, Louise Ray said.

Her son had "wanted people to understand AIDS is not just this word that happens to somebody else -- it can happen to everybody," said Louise Ray, who, along with her husband, looked pale and haggard at a news conference later Sunday outside Kavanaugh's office.

"Ricky has done what he wanted to do," the boy's father said. "He won his battle, and he's gone to a better place."

In his last days, Ray's family had maintained a bedside vigil by the teenager, who recently had returned to his home for Thanksgiving after being hospitalized for a month at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

The family said the boy's funeral will be Friday morning in Sarasota, where he also will be buried.

Last month, President-elect Clinton telephoned the boy in the hospital to offer his support.

It is uncertain whether Clinton will attend services for Ray, spokesman Jeff Eller said in Little Rock, Ark. Clinton, who was unable to reach the family Sunday morning, sent his condolences.

Ray had said before the hospital call that he hoped Clinton "does what he says about AIDS. . . . I know he's a very busy man right now because he's got to run the United States now, but . . . I want to tell him that I want help for AIDS."

He had hoped to live long enough to attend Clinton's inauguration and progressed to the point that he was able to walk in for out-patient care early this month, "surprising everyone," said Barbosa. But his condition then rapidly deteriorated, Barbosa said.

Ricky again made national headlines in June 1991 when he and his Sarasota neighbor, 16-year-old Lindberg, announced plans to wed.

Although the young couple's decision was supported by their parents, the engagement drew mixed public reaction. Illness eventually forced Ricky to put the wedding plans on hold. The pair later broke up, but remained close friends.

"They were best friends, always best friends -- even now that he's gone," Lindberg's mother, Debbie, said Sunday.

The three Ray boys are believed to have contracted the AIDS virus six years ago through tainted blood products taken for their hemophilia. They were the first Florida children to receive the AIDS drug AZT.

Ray's impact on AIDS education already has been felt.

"Things changed so much for us around the country after the Ray family. People saw that education is really an imperative in dealing with AIDS," said Alan Brownstein, executive director of the National Hemophilia Foundation in New York. "They went through hell, but their hell has helped others."

Robert was diagnosed with acquired immune deficiency syndrome in February 1990 but shows little sign of physical problems. Ricky was diagnosed with AIDS in March 1991.

Randy, like his brothers, tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus in 1986, but he has not developed any symptoms of advanced stages of the incurable disease.

Barbosa said Sunday that the younger brothers are "the picture of health" and are not yet showing outward signs of the ravaging disease.

During the ordeal, the family endured the miseries of a small Central Florida town barring their children from school, and an arsonist torched their home in 1987.

In some ways, Ricky Ray was a teenager like any other. In one month last year, he dyed his hair blond, got a spike cut and had his ears pierced. He loved going to the movies, eating at fast-food restaurants and hanging out with friends.

Yet, Ricky was clearly different -- "like he was living on another place from the rest of us," said Kavanaugh, the family lawyer who become the Rays' confidante.

He was wise beyond his years, and one of his missions from the start was to speak bluntly about AIDS. When his family moved to Sarasota in 1988, after their house was burned down in Arcardia, Ricky talked about his disease to classmates. Use condoms, he said; if someone with HIV is bleeding, get them to a doctor.

When one friend's mother expressed fears about exposure to someone with the HIV virus, Ricky spent hours with the woman, explaining the basics of the disease. She changed her mind.

And he spoke out to groups across the country, jetting with his family from talk show to talk show.

People had a hard time understanding how the teenager could speak so openly about death, or about how he worried not for himself, but for his brothers.

He did get depressed at times. One of his worst periods was the death of his friend Ryan White, 18, in 1990. Ryan was a hemophiliac, too, who contracted the disease through tainted blood transfusions.

The two used to talk often on the phone. About what? "Secrets," Ricky said in an interview last year.

"I've learned since I have AIDS," he said in a hearing last year in a lawsuit, "that every moment is supposed to be a special time because you don't know how much time you have left." The suit, against two blood-products companies, was settled out of court for $1 million.

But most of all over the last six years, he became the protective older brother to his sister and brothers.

In an interview with The Miami Herald last year, Ricky said he had, in his own way, prayed that he could save his brothers through his own sacrifice: "I thought about both of them dying. I thought about a way to take it off Robert and Randy and putting it on me."

A public viewing of Ricky's body was planned for Thursday night at Toale Brothers Funeral Home in Sarasota.

Ray's funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the First Baptist Church in Sarasota, with burial at Palms Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Dr. Jerry Barbosa, chief of pediatrics, All Children's Hospital, 801 Sixth St. South, St. Petersburg, Fla., 33701.

Ricky Ray is survived by his parents, Clifford and Louise Ray; his brothers, Robert and Randy; and a sister, Candy.

Herald wire services contributed to this story.

CAPTION: PHOTO Ricky RAY contracted HIV by transfusion. ; photo: Robert, Randy and Ricky RAY.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1992. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .