Bobby Ray Keen
October 9, 1934 — July 18, 2014
Bobby Ray Keen, resident of Memphis, United States Veteran and husband of Barbara Alice Mansfield Keen, departed this life Friday evening, July 18, 2014 at his residence. He was 79 years of age and died following an illness of eight years.
Services of Remembrance for Mr. Keen were conducted at 2 P.M. Wednesday, July 23rd at the Audobon Park Baptist Church in Memphis with Rev. Joe Jernigan, a minister at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, officiating. A Private Interment followed in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Arrangements were provided by Peebles Fayette County Funeral Homes & Cremation Center – West Chapel at Oakland.
Mr. Keen was born October 9, 1934 in Lake City, Arkansas. He was preceded in death by his parents, Alfred Thomas Keen and Nathael Faulkner Keen. He received his education in the Shelby County Public School System and was a graduate of Southside High School in Memphis. He served his country in the United States Air Force and was married September 6, 1953 to the former Barbara Alice Mansfield, a retired administrative assistant, who survives.
Mr. Keen was a former resident of West Memphis, Arkansas and served as a radio operator, patrolman, detective and police chief for West Memphis from 1956 until 1982. In 1976, he graduated from the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy. He trained and worked with the first K-9 dog in Arkansas. After retiring, he moved to the Lakeland Community and served with the law enforcement for the Memphis Sport Shooting Association for a number of years before his retirement in 2013.
In addition to his wife of 60 years, Mr. Keen is survived by two daughters, Carrie Ann Post (George) of Charleston, SC, Patricia “Cricket” Kifer (Lynn) of Henderson, AR; two brothers-in-law, Charles E. Smothers (Eulene) of Memphis, James H. Smothers (Carol) of Oakland; five grandchildren, Robert, Tiffany, Dana, Ruben, Barbie; and four great grandchildren, James, Christopher, Joshua and Allison.
The family requests that memorials be directed to the Mid-South Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, Inc, 2535 Cedarwood Drive, Germantown, TN 38138.