Funeral services for Raymond "Ray" Johnson 87, Mobridge and formerly of the Trail City area will be Monday at 10:30 AM at Trinity Lutheran Church, Mobridge. Rev. Elizabeth Jassman officiating. Burial in the Greenwood Cemetery under the direction of Kesling Funeral Home, Mobridge. A prayer service, Sunday at 7:00 PM at the Funeral Home. Visitation will begin at 3:00 PM Sunday. Mr. Johnson passed away December 11, 2014 at the Mobridge Regional Hospital.

Ray Johnson was born on December 6, 1927 to A.E. "Buffalo" and Pearl (Taylor) Johnson on the Johnson family homestead located north of Trail City, SD. He was one of 10 children. Ray attended a number of rural schools including the Landeau, Spring Lake and graduated 8th grade form the Maple Leaf school north west of McLaughlin, SD. He then began his ranching career which spanned many years by returning home and helping on the family ranch which over the years grew to 15,000 acres and over 400 cows along with necessary farming to provide feed for those cows. The Ranch included Dad A.E. and sons John, Kenneth, Robert, Ray and sister Ramona. In the early years they did a lot of farming with teams and very small equipment and it involved a tremendous amount of hard work.

But through hard work they were able to put together a good herd of Black Angus cattle, a herd of Bucking Horses and a herd of about 100 buffalo. Johnson and Sons provided rodeo Stock for a number of area rodeos and Ray was known in the area a quite a saddle Bronc rider winning a number of local rodeos.

On March 29, 1951 Ray entered the Army and served during the Korean War. While in the Army Ray served both Stateside and in France as a mechanic. Following his discharged from the Army Ray returned to the Ranch and with the death of his father the four boys formed a partnership called the Johnson Brothers. That partnership continued until 1984. The Brothers continued to improve the quality of the cattle that they were raising and in time became known by the Beef Industry Federation as the top commercial cattle herd in America. They began to sell a lot of purebred angus bulls all across the nation.

The partnership regrouped in 1984 to make room for the next generation of ranchers. They split into 3 ranches the Johnson J Ranch, The Johnson-Rose Ranch and The Johnson Good Shield Ranch which Ray and son in law Pete Good Shield operated. Ray married Janice Perman on June 12 of 1962. Janice passed away in 2002 and Ray then married Anita Goodspeed and they were married until her death in 2004. Ray has made his home in Mobridge since 2008.

Ray is survived by his daughters; Nancy(Derry Jensen) of Mobridge and Kay Johnson-Good Shield of Mobridge. Grandchildren; Melissa (Allan) Knoll, Kyle, Colton, Kobe, Kalli Johnson Good Shield, and Kaitlin Johnson Good Shield. Great grandchildren; Jensen Knoll, Kyson Johnson Good Shield, and Kennedy Knoll. Brother John (Bernadine) Johnson of Trail City, SD, Sister Ramona (George) Rose of Texas. Special friend Idella Fey of Ashley, ND.

He was preceded in death by his parents, wife Janice in 2002, 2nd wife; Anita in 2004, brothers; Delbert, Robert, Kenneth, Gordon, A.L, and sisters; Ione and Alice.