Mary Lou Court Apartments

My name is Steve Borts, and my parents are Dick and Carol Ann Borts. We lived in the same apartment complex in northwest Portland as Ray & Jere did in the late 50s or early 60s. They became friends, along with some of the other young families in the complex.

I have only vague memories of that time because I was only 4 or 5 years old when we moved away. I know that the Grimm family also moved, but I don't know who moved first

I remember going to visit at at a large, older white house in northwest Portland, and later, a more modern home (custom-built perhaps?) in a wooded setting, also in northwest Portland.

One of my Dad's favorite stories concerned Ray's home-brew beer. Ray was apparently quite proud of it, and served it at a backyard picnic to my Dad, who did not care for it. My Dad poured it out in a flower bed when Ray wasn't looking, whereupon Ray noticed his glass was empty and promptly brought a refill! This apparently happened several times until my Dad just pretended not to be thirsty any more.

I was pleased to see the pipe in Ray's hand in the photo in The Oregonian . According to our family lore, Ray and my Dad designed and made those pipes. I have one of the prototypes that was made of pine or some softwood, and one of my sisters ended up with my Dad's pipe after he died 11 years ago. My Dad really liked that pipe, but said it got very hot very quickly because it was so thin.


Anyway, I was sorry to see Ray's obit in the paper, but please know that he touched the lives of people that you've never even heard of. My parents always spoke of him in positive ways, and looked back at the time in the apartment as some of the "good old days."

-Steve Bort