Ray DeBose reflects on military service, business and four generations of council service in Newman City

Ray DeBose, a longtime Newman City councilman from District 2, reflected on his military service, family business and civic work during recent remarks. He said the experience shaped his approach to public service and community redevelopment.

DeBose said he was born in the Panama Canal Zone and returned to Florida as an infant. He described being drafted despite having a wife and infant son, serving two years and being reassigned from an expected deployment to Vietnam to South Korea. "I was very surprised that I was drafted because I had a wife and a young son at home," DeBose said, recalling a two-year period that included work in the personnel section and daily coordination with the Pentagon on redeployments.

After military service, DeBose said he and his family expanded the family jewelry business, eventually adding six stores across Florida, and later bought a store in what he referred to in his remarks as "Newnan." He said he and his wife, Linda, found the city by chance and decided to settle there and grow the business. DeBose described Linda's volunteer work with the school system, leading student tours of local homes.

DeBose recounted joining the merchants association (later Main Street) as older downtown businesses were closing and serving on the downtown development authority. He described the Carnegie Library's rehabilitation as a multi-step effort: hiring a preservation firm to restore the building and then staffing it as a library and resource center. "When we finally made the decision to redevelop that, we hired a firm that went in and historically preserved that building," DeBose said.

He said neighbors encouraged him to run for city council, including a man he named as Pope Jones, and that he subsequently ran, saying he was "unopposed every year." DeBose described public service as a family tradition and said he considered himself a fourth-generation councilman. "It's hard to believe, but I'm a fourth generation city councilman," he said.

DeBose used a community anecdote to illustrate local ties: at a demonstration near the Kearney Library he was stranded in a boom truck until a city mechanic, Benny Hayes, improvised a fix. The story underscored his point about community problem-solving and relationships.

An unidentified speaker who spoke after DeBose thanked him for mentorship and recalled a private conversation in DeBose's jewelry store that helped the speaker remain in Newman City. The speaker said DeBose had listened and offered practical guidance during a difficult time.

DeBose closed by thanking the citizens who elected him and his colleagues on the council and staff. He also said this is "my third career that I'm gonna retire from," noting he intended to step back from work while remaining open to future opportunities.

The remarks combined personal history, small-business experience and civic projects, notably downtown redevelopment and the Carnegie Library restoration; no formal motions or votes were recorded in the transcript of these remarks.