It is easy to sit with Irene Wilks Gray of Searcy for hours and not realize how much time has passed. The 79-year-old has traveled to 103 countries, and she has plans to add to that number.
All over Gray’s home are talking points with treasures from her travels on display. The walls are filled with special artwork and photos, and the surfaces are covered with valuables, such as her collection of Faberge eggs.
“I’ve covered all kinds of places and been in all kinds of situations and learned that people are friendly and the same everywhere, wanting the same things in life,” she said. “It’s the politicians who change things.”
Gray moved to Searcy in 1977 with her husband, Barron, now deceased, and their son, Don, who was in the 10th grade. The couple’s daughter had already graduated from high school in Memphis and was attending nursing school. The family moved to Searcy for Barron Gray’s new job with Yarnell’s Ice Cream. He retired from the company as vice president of purchasing and engineering.
Irene Gray had been a moving consultant in Memphis, but no such jobs existed in Searcy at the time. Some friends suggested she sign up to be a substitute teacher to help her meet new people and become involved in the community, she said. The middle school principal noticed she had secretarial experience and offered her the school’s secretary position. She retired from that position 25 years later.
The Grays had a flair for various cultures as they hosted foreign exchange students and were open to travel opportunities. In the mid-1980s, one of Searcy’s English teachers approached Gray about helping her plan a trip to New York City. Five years later, when the same students were seniors in high school, they were invited to visit a school in the former Soviet Union; thus began Irene Gray’s international travel.
The group landed in Moscow, where the travelers met their guide, who was from England. They were set to stay at a tourist hotel right across from the KGB, but when they arrived, their reservation could not be located, Gray said.
“They took our passports, which was a little disheartening, and we were told we had to move to St. Petersburg because of an election taking place,” she said.
She and the students couldn’t drink the water in Leningrad because they weren’t immune to its pollutants, Gray recalled. “We had to drink Pepsi, and in the morning, when we were served grape juice, I drank the kids’ servings, as they didn’t like it because it wasn’t colored as it is here.”
To take in some culture, they went to a performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake.
Gray has since been back to Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union and said it’s nice to experience the change of the people.
“They seem happier,” she said, noting that her favorite place to visit internationally to this day is St. Petersburg. “The beauty and history is captivating.”
“When I went back, I didn’t think I would see the Amber Room of Catherine Palace, as the Germans raided it in the war, but I got to see it, and it is beautiful.”
Gray would go on to take students to such places as Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe. She said she would go back to Florence, Italy, “in a heartbeat.”
On their travels, Gray said, she would allow the students only one meal at an American establishment, such as McDonald’s.
“I wanted them to eat the meals the natives eat,” she said.
On a trip to Europe, student Jordan May heeded Gray’s request and ordered the national meal in Belgium — a big bowl of mussels.
“I was afraid he would not eat those, but he ate every single one,” she said.
May, who is now 36 and a pilot instructor stationed at Fort Rucker in Georgia, said Gray was good about allowing students to explore and experience the places they visited in their own way, within reason.
He recalled one night in Berlin when the group was staying at a hostel. There was a common room with one TV, and the Searcy students met up with some German English-speaking students. They stayed up well past curfew. When Gray realized they were up past their bedtime, she didn’t scold them but politely reminded them it was time for bed.
“She did a good job of keeping us teenagers in line while letting us experience the culture,” he said. “What a brave woman to take a group of teens to a foreign land.”
Windy Bunn of Hot Springs, 39, was one of two students selected to place the wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C. She now works for the National Park Service as a fire ecologist for the Park Service’s Intermountain Region.
“I had never done anything like that before, and as a 13-year-old, it felt like a really important moment,” Bunn said. I was excited, proud and extremely nervous. I remember trying to go slowly and stand straight and follow the directions. We were all trying really hard to do a good job and be respectful.”
Gray worked diligently to provide students with memories that would last a lifetime, Bunn said.
“The thing that I most remember about the trip — and still think about from time to time — wasn’t actually on the agenda. We were touring either the Supreme Court or the Capitol Building, and Mrs. Gray learned that Warren Burger (former chief justice) was having lunch in the cafeteria. She took me over to meet him, and I had my picture taken with him. I’ll hear or read a Supreme Court story that references him every now and then, and I just smile and think of that trip and of Mrs. Gray creating that opportunity.”
Lauren (LaForce) Brown, co-owner of Savory Catering in Searcy, traveled with Gray, and Brown talks with Gray frequently and helps her plan the many events she’s a part of in the community.
“Irene is such an amazing woman. I’ve always admired her adventurous spirit, confidence and independent nature,” Brown said. “She inspired me to travel to new places, meet new people and engage in new experiences.”
Gray describes herself as just a girl from Mississippi. She met her husband through a mutual friend. Irene was working as a secretary for a construction company, and Barron Gray was working for his father’s local ice cream company.
“I finally agreed to go out with [Barron] and then had to marry him to get rid of him,” she said, laughing.
After Barron retired from Yarnell’s, he volunteered for the International Executive Service Corps. His service was rebuilding dairies and developing ice cream plants in Third World countries.
Irene Gray went with him for a month to Ukraine, and she volunteered to speak with students at a local university.
“They asked why I liked to travel and why I liked their old city,” she said. “My answer was simple: ‘I like history and knowing about our world.’”
She recalls that she especially enjoyed seeing old villages in all the grandeur and remnants of their original structures before the wars and politics ruined many of them.
Gray works part time with Peacock Travel Agency and still helps the school plan trips. Next for her is a journey to New England and Canada in September, and to Cuba next May.
At home, she stays busy at First United Methodist Church, in her leadership roles with Daughters of the American Revolution and as “queen mother” of the local Red Hat Society group.
If money is a concern for travel, Gray recommends that people “save up and start small.” Seize every opportunity to travel, and “just go,” she said.