Raymond furnished information on his family group. His missing link was provided in the LFB; that bit of information plus his other research allowed him to become a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Raymond attended both the 1993 "Cherry Grove" and 1994 Georgia Veazey reunions.

From Ann Veazey Davis, Veazey Family Genealogist:

I do feel that I knew Raymond very well. He attended our very first reunion in Maryland in 1993 and was a perfect attendee for several years thereafter. He never did get to be the oldest one in attendance as the "old lady" from Texas kept showing up every time he did and she was somewhat older. I did give him an award one year for being "the oldest Veazey who drove himself to the reunion in his own car!"

Raymond even introduced me to his son, Richard in Alaska, and when Wayne and I took our first cruise to Alaska ca. 1995 or so, we had dinner with Richard and his family at the home of another, as yet unconnected Vesey, who served in the Alaska Legislature. I have lost touch with this fellow and don't know if Richard has or not. We did have a great time together, a mini-reunion in Fairbanks! And the most beautiful display of northern lights when we came out to leave that evening. Richard has actually attended one or two of our "international" reunions.

When we had our VZ Reunion in 1996 in Montgomery, AL, I had printed out a "Descendants" chart for the first John Veazey on my old printer that used continuous tract paper. I have forgotten how many pages long it was, but our room in the hotel that had an open atrium to the lobby, was on the 14th or so floor and I dropped that chart down to the lobby floor and didn't use 1/3 of it, to give you some idea of how long it was.

It seems we have lost so many of our early and old faithful cousins. And some who are still with us are not able to travel anymore, like Leroy Vz of Kentucky. Link VZ of Georgia is still able to travel and was with us this year, but he is beginning to show his age, too. I believe we had our last big VZ Reunion this year in Durham, NC, which was my home town. I was very fortunate that our hostess wanted to do this one in honor of the memory of her grandmother who used to host our local VZ Reunion every year on her lawn (she lived on a farm, so had a large lawn!). She was a very good hostess and had all the details worked out, which was great for me as I went for my 27th radiation treatment on my way to Durham on that Friday. I was in no shape to handle it all by myself this year. We have not had an invitation for another year, so I believe this was our swan song!

The following is from the book compiled by David Raymond Veazey:

I grew up in Van Alstyne where we still had hitching racks for the use of those students who rode horses to school. In high school I won first place in debating in the County Interscholastic Meet competing against the two debaters from Sherman who later became the number one debate team for Baylor University. i was Valedictorian of my senior class (only 13 students) and lettered on the high school football team. At Baylor University, I was initiated into the then equivalent at Baylor of Phi Beta Kappa and at Texas University I was initiated into Pi Kappa Alpha, a social fraternity. Coming out of college (degree from Baylor in 1934) in the middle of the Great Depression I worked at Veazey Hardware until going to work for Sears, Roebuck and Co in 1936 as a traveling auditor, moved to Federal Land Bank of Houston in 1939 as an accountant and then came World War II.

On December 28, 1941 I was married to Annie Margaret Burress in Houston, TX and two weeks later returned to the US Army Station Hospital in Galveston where I had originally been sent a year earlier as a draftee. The US Navy did not get me out of the Army until May 1942 to give me a commission as an Ensign. In spite of a relatively late start in the Navy, I finally attained the rank of Lt Cmdr thanks to an out of order promotion arranged for me in the South Pacific by a Navy Commodore on our base, not for extraordinary valor or heroism in battle but because he could not stand the flirting with Navy traditions in having me as Executive Officer of a small navy base being outranked by other officers in lesser positions of authority. After a couple of years in the South Pacific, I wound up the war in Washington, DC in Officer Personnel in the Navy Bureau of Ordinance. While in Washington I was first ordained a deacon by the Fountain Memorial Baptist Church in 1945.

At the conclusion of WWII, I declined an IRS appointment as some sort of assistant agent in Houston and went to work for Quintana Petroleum Corp (owned by Hugh Roy Cullen) handling field accounting and purchasing. We lived in Cotulla, TX for six months before moving to Victoria TX for the next twelve years. While in Victoria I worked in the Quintana offices in Refugio and Port Lavaca. I was chairman of the deacons one year at the First Baptist Church and later a charter member fo the Baptist Temple Church.

On January, 1, 1958 I moved to Houston, TX where I was president of American Bank until is was sold and then president of Liberty Bank until it was sold following which I was a senior VP of American Savings and Loan Association which later became United Savings. On December 31, 1981, I retired to concentrate on my golf and tennis.

During the period in Houston I have been a member of the Alumni Association and Heritage Club of Baylor University, a member of the President's council of Houston Baptist University being Chairman of that group for two years, a member of Houston Indoor Tennis Club, a member of Inwood Forest Counry Club, a member of various social clubs such as the Warwick Club, and a senior deacon at South Main Baptist Church.

During my lifetime virtually all of the amenities that we all enjoy except houses, roads, railroads, electric lights and household furniture have been developed and made available for general use fo rthe first time. Whenever you enjoy your automobiles, radios, televisions, telephones, natural gas in the home, record players, cassettes, ball point pens, airplane travel, calculators, computers, VCRs, central heat and air conditioning, electric and electronic clocks and watches, dishwashers, microwave ovens and almost any other type of gadgetry that we use every day just keep in mind that these were developed during the almost eight decades of my lifetime. During this period man's scientific knowledge had been multiplied at least 1000 times over anything known to man prior to 1912.

Although my father (Robert Lee Veazey) broke the tradition of utilizing the land as pioneers, I have maintained a love of the land without relying on it for power or for the power or for the support of my family. I have discovered that the most beautiful land in this great nation of ours is on its golf courses so that as a great admirer of beauty, I have inspected the real estate involved in a great many golf courses around the country. I am actually barely out of the duffer category as a golfer and play only for the exercise, the fresh air, and the love of the game.