Lee Gray

Who was Lee Gray?

Lee Gray was an American disc-jockey.

Shortly after he was born, his parents, Jack and Alma Darling, divorced and his mother moved to Chicago. Lee spent the majority of his childhood traveling back and forth from Oklahoma City to Chicago, on his own, to spend time with each parent. He also spent a lot of time with his grandmother on the Cherokee Indian Reservation when visits were inconvenient for his parents. This schedule caused him to attend many schools before graduating High School in 1953.

After graduating high school, Lee joined the U.S. Army in 1953, one month before the official end of the Korean War. While in the U.S. Army, he was stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany as a Military Policeman. He had a passion for singing, but was told that he didn't have a good singing voice, so he considered getting into radio. Lee requested, and was granted, to work at the A.F.N. Thirty seconds before his first air shift, his supervisor whispered in his ear "When the clock gets to the top of the hour, try to relax and not think about the 50 million Europeans that will be listening to your voice and every word you say." He really became flustered and botched the entire broadcast while his supervisor was laughing at the radio rookie.