From Eric Marley

Ralph T. Marley

South Bend Tribune

Wednesday, April 9, 1969

Page 52

"AUTO RACER MARLEY DIES

Driver and Owner in Ill Health Since 1965

     Ralph T. (Red) Marley Sr., 65, known throughout automobile racing as a driver, promoter and owner, was pronounced dead on arrival at Memorial Hospital at 1 a.m. today after suffering an apparent heart attack in his home at 1245 Woodward Ave.  He had been in ill health since 1965.

    Marley retired from Drewrys Ltd. in 1965 after 33 years with the company.  He was born Sept. 7, 1903, at Eagleton, Ind. and had lived here 40 years, coming from Indianapolis.

    He married the former Kathlyn H. Huth Sept. 13, 1930 in South Bend.  She survives.  Besides the widow, survivors include, two sons, Ralph Jr., of Osceola and Thomas H., of South Bend; a daughter, Mrs. William Meszaros, of South Bend; five grandchildren; and a brother, Ernest Marley, of South Bend.

    Friends may call after noon Thursday in the Welsheimer Funeral Home where services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday.

    Marley was associated with automobile racing for most of his life.  He entered at least a half dozen racers in the Indianapolis 500, the last one a No. 88 Drewry's Special in 1963.

    Winning the "Big One" had always been one of Marley's goals, but he had to be satisified with occasional victories on the midget or dirt track circuit.  When he didn't have a car in the 500, Marley frequently worked in the pit crew.  His son Tom, is still taking an active role in crew at Indianapolis.

    Marley became a race driver following service in World War I.  His first car was a Frontinaque and his career took him from coast to coast until his family begged him to quit driving in 1934.  But after some years as a promoter and owner, he started test-driving midget cars again.

    A major accident in 1945 in South Bend left Red with a fractured skull, a punctured lung, and a couple of yards of third degree burns.  This finished his active driving, but he entered six Drewry's Specials at Indianapolis from 1958 to 1963 the last on smashed into an $18,000 loss when driver Eddie Johnson lost control after a blown tire."