Funeral Service for Geneva Tyson Ray was held on Friday, May 22, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at the Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church, 4387 Ararat Road, Toxey, Alabama 36921.  Rev. Bobby Sanders, Officiating.  Interment, Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery.

Geneva Tyson Ray was "The Babygirl" and the 11th child born to David and Mattie Jones Tyson on February 8, 1952.

She received her early education at Turners' Mission School.  She then attended East Choctaw Jr. High School, where she made history as being one of the first black students to integrate and graduated from Choctaw County High School. Geneva was passionate about segregation and the voting rights act.  She spent numerous days helping blacks register to vote and driving them back and forth to the polls to vote.

Geneva knew that she had to leave the South to better herself.  So, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio with Lincoln, Sallie and Susie (her siblings).  While in Ohio, Geneva worked and enjoyed her adulthood.  She liked cookouts, playing cards, bowling, dancing and talking 'smack'.  She returned to Alabama to help her mom take care of her sick dad.  After her dad's death, "Girl," as she was called, made her way into the workforce with her sister, Josephine, at Solbro in Toxey, Alabama.  They worked tirelessly stitching, cutting, sewing, and pressing clothes.  Until one day, the Bossman Tommy, bent the rules for a white lady.  This is where and when the AFL-CIO Union was called in and made aware of harassing and derogatory conditions, and unsafe work practices toward the black worker.  Geneva went on to become one of the best Alabama Shop Stewards.  She helped negotiate the contracts that would give more black people jobs and better pay wages across the nation.  She also rallied around public transportation so that people could get back and forth to work.  Hence, West Alabama Public Transportation was created out of a committedneed right here in Choctaw County.

Geneva accepted Christ as a child at Wesley, but it wasn't until her adult-life that she became Saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. She traveled to and sponsored many gospel singings by various groups.  She was preceded in death by her parents: David and Mattie Jones Tyson; her husband: Henry Ray; her beloved son: Gene Tyson; brothers: Townsurel (Alice), Hayse (Pearlie), George, and Lincoln (Mable); sisters: Josephine (Hollis, Sr.), Sallie Mae (Robert); brothers-in-law: James Sonny Miller and Curtis Bonner, Sr.; her niece: Janet McClemore; her nephews: Travis Hill and Frederick Bonner.

Geneva leaves to cherish her memories, three sisters: Willie Mae Miller, Simpsonville, SC, Mary Bonner, Butler, AL and Susie Edwards (David), Cincinnati, OH; step-children: Patricia Causey, Frank Ray, McSellin Ray,  McCullin Ray, Allen Ray and Willie Ray; one sister-in-law: Catherine Tyson, McIntosh, AL; a devoted sister-in-love: Annie Miller (Roger), Mobile, AL; devoted cousins: Fred, Michael, Susie (Arthur, Sr.) Jackson, Faye and Gloria Evans; special friends: Deloris Allen, Betty Campbell, Marilyn Evans-Jackson, and Linda Jackson; great-great nieces and nephews, which she called her "Aunties Babies"; a devoted adopted son: Lawrence Thomas; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.