Raymond and Sylvia Ridgeway

Raymond Ridgeway grew up in Ironton, Ohio, and attended Ironton High School before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. After leaving the Air Force, he returned to Ironton and then moved to Huntington where he was employed by C&O working in several different departments. He went on to work for Appalachian Electric Power as a meter reader. He held this position until his retirement.

Raymond was a member of the Ebenezer United Methodist Church and was active with the men’s group. He also served on the original planning committee for the Ebony Golf Classic, was an umpire in youth baseball leagues and was a member of the Ebony Bowling League, in which he rolled a perfect 300 game. One of his favorite volunteer positions was with the Intensive Care Unit at Cabell Huntington Hospital, where he volunteered more than 10,000 hours.

Raymond was regarded as a “people” person who knew no stranger and loved giving time to his church family, the community and sponsoring bus trips to Atlantic City.

Sylvia Morrison Ridgeway is a lifelong resident of Huntington. She graduated from Douglass High School, where she served as head majorette of the high school marching band. After graduation, she attended West Virginia State College for two-and-a-half years before returning home, marrying and starting a family.

Sylvia went to work for the Xerox Corporation, which operated the Federal Job Corps Program, as secretary to the director of education. When the program closed and her last child entered elementary school, Sylvia went to work at Marshall University as secretary to the associate dean in the College of Education. She continued to take classes toward her bachelor’s degree in English.

After completing her course work, Sylvia left her job, completed her student teaching and was hired immediately following the end of the semester of her student teaching to work for Cabell County Schools as a full-time English teacher.

During her tenure at Huntington High School, she became the chair of the department for two years and was selected as Secondary Language Arts Teacher of the Year. She retired in 2000 and continues to work as a substitute teacher.

Sylvia served as president of the Huntington-Cabell branch of the NAACP for 16 years and two terms as the West Virginia State Conference of Branches president. She was the first and only female to hold that position in the NAACP’s history in the Mountain State.

She was inducted into the Greater Huntington Wall of Fame in 2014 and was selected “Citizen of the Year” by The Herald-Dispatch.  She was honored by the Marshall University Women of Color Program and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Marshall University Association. She serves on several boards of directors, including the United Way of the River Cities, and is now vice president of the Cabell County Democratic Women. She also is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.