William Clay Grayson

On September 11, 2020 our family lost its beloved father, Pepa, father-n-law and friend to COVID. We believe he is now reunited with his parents, brother, sister, wife, daughter, God and many other friends and family from his 80 years of living.

Bill was born on August 22, 1940 and spent most of his childhood in Danville, IL. When Bill was young, his parents hit hard times and he, his brother Pete and his sister Norma Jean spent several years in the local orphanage. Always someone who looked at the bright side, he rarely talked about the horrible food at the orphanage, he instead talked about how much he loved Sunday visits from his Dad and the hotdogs they’d enjoy during their time together or how he and his brother would sneak out, follow the rail road tracks to the river for a late afternoon swim with other boys from town.

In the 1960s, not long after Bill turned 19, he joined the Army and was sent straight to the Panama Canal. At the time, there was unrest, looting and riots but Bill never spoke of that. He only recalled the makeshift Zoo he and his comrades created to care for the local injured wildlife. He particularly loved to recall how he’d welcome new recruits with his pet python and how he scared one young man so badly he had to call his mother in tears. Bill was quite the prankster.

After returning from Panama, Bill met the love of his life, Carolyn Petit. The story goes…. while out cruising one evening he noticed 2 women walking along….just talking. One in particular caught his eye, so he decided to stop to see if she might be interested in going out with him sometime. She was, they did, and 5 kids and 53 years later they were still happily married, until her passing in 2015. After Carolyn’s passing, he spent many long hours admiring his favorite picture of her. It was taken while she was wearing a beautiful emerald green dress he bought her for Christmas many years ago. He loved how the dress brought out the blue of her eyes. He’d often say “A man ain’t nothing without a good woman”. Carolyn was his “good woman”. They had a good life and spent many happy years square dancing, attending their sons wrestling events, hosting the great grandkids for weeks during the summer, and supporting their local church where Bill was a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Bill was a Boilermaker for over 45 years and was known to his fellow teammates as “Turtle”. Not because he was slow, but because he was in charge of organizing the weekly turtle races. Best known as the guy who’d sign up all the men (and their turtles) collect the bets and distribute the winnings – on race night, Turtle was a popular guy. He’d always say “Behave, if you don’t, have fun!” And fun he had!

Bill was preceded in death by his parents Robert and Nancy, his siblings Pete and Norma Jean, his wife of over 53 years Carolyn, and his daughter Jeanette.

He is survived by his sons, William “Boomer” and Robert; daughter-n-laws, Rita and Dore;his brother-n-law, Raymond “Butch”; his sister in-law, Diana; his grandchildren Mandy, Kindra, Kortney, Austi, Garret, Lauren, Madison, Tanith, Dwain, Johnny and Christa; 17 great-grandchildren.

Due to current health concerns the Celebration of Life service has been postponed to a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family ask that donations be made in Bill’s name to the Alzheimer Association or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital which was Carolyn’s favorite charity.