“I’m not afraid of death, but I’m afraid to take that drink, that torture” she told The Birmingham Times. Ray, who was born in Birmingham, moved to Chicago, where she began a thriving singing career. While working at a store, she met her husband Charles Bennett, and they were married on June 17, 1952. Ray writes that she stopped singing and was drinking more. “What he didn’t know was that my container had vodka and orange juice or tomato juice,” Ray writes.