Chesley Bray › Tunes

Aaron Chesley Bray, Sr. was born in Houlka Mississippi in 1905. He died in 1968 and is buried in Pinecrest Cemetery in Calhoun County, Mississippi.

His musical education came from the Hartford Music Normal, the Vaughn Music Normal and instruction received from J.A. Roane, W.B. Walbert, Prof. Huddleston and Prof. Lancaster.

He was principle of Southern Gospel School of Music for eight years and a harmony instructor at the Denson School of Music in Haleyville, Alabama.

In a 1937 publication of the Who’s Who of Southern Singers and Composers, Bray was reported to have written 100 songs. It stated that Bray and his wife, Mattie, traveled the area performing as the Bray duet. He was engaged in the grocery business in Houlka.

In 1945, he began publishing a newspaper in Bruce MS, but restraints for raw materials after WWII forced him to find other revenue sources. He purchased his first dry cleaners shortly afterwards in Mathiston, MS but kept his printing press which allowed him to provide books for Gospel singings. It was reported he would travel from singing to singing on weekends, selling his freshly printed hymnals of the latest Gospel renditions.

He moved back to Bruce where he remained in the dry cleaning business, selling pianos in the front of his business. He later sold the dry cleaners to one of his sons and he became a Kimball Piano dealer. He spent his later years selling and servicing pianos and organs, writing Gospel songs and traveling the singing circuit.

Aaron Bray (grandson)