Irby B. Gray, 85, artist, left mark across metro Atlanta

The old Mathis Dairy had a cow by the name of Rosebud as its mascot. Her famous image adorned the former Decatur dairy’s fleet of delivery trucks.

And Irby B. Gray once painted Rosebud on every one of those trucks.

Enlarge this image

Family photo

Irby B. Gray specialized in painting the gold leaf lettering and stripes for firetrucks.

“He was a real artist,” said daughter Joann Bond of Las Vegas. “He made a living painting signs and pictures and things like that. And he did everything free hand.”

The family has hundreds of photos with Gray standing alongside things he’d lettered or painted. His specialty was the gold leaf lettering and stripes for firetrucks. Gray painted firetrucks for Atlanta, DeKalb County, Decatur and other agencies in metro Atlanta.

“I was looking through some pictures, and he did lettering for almost all of the fire departments around here,” said Edwin Hodge, a son-in-law. “He did work for departments as far away as Alabama. When departments restored the [emergency vehicles], he did that, too. That’s a real talent. He did it all his life.”

The funeral for Irby B. Gray, 85, of Decatur, and formerly of College Park, will be 11 a.m. Thursday at A.S. Turner & Sons. He died Saturday at DeKalb Medical Center due to complications from appendicitis surgery.

Mr. Gray had lived in the Golden Living Center in Decatur the past 4 1/2 years. Diabetes and low-blood sugar required constant supervision. He was quite popular at the nursing home. He’d shake the hands of strangers and often appeared upbeat — “an absolute gem,” said Amy Wall, Golden Living’s executive director.

He earned a living as an artist from 1945 until his retirement in the late 1990s. His craft probably came naturally. Harry E. Gray, his father, was an Atlanta sign painter and commercial artist for decades, said Francis Gray, a brother who lives in Fort Myers.

“My brother was independent,” he said. “He never worked for anybody. As far as I know, he was the only one in Atlanta — at one time — who could do the gold leaf stripes and lettering for the fire departments.”

Mr. Gray’s professional reputation, relatives say, was impeccable. Business owners turned to him when they needed identification information painted on their trucks and vans. He kept the letters and numbers neat, straight and equal in size.

As a young man, Mr. Gray enjoyed sandlot baseball and football. He made the junior varsity football squad at Tech High, which he attended but never graduated from. At the urging of his brother, Francis, he enlisted in the Army-Air Force. He served in England from June 1942 to August 1945.

“He was 18,” his brother said. “I told him he’d better go in right away so he wouldn’t have to be a foot soldier. So he did.”

Mr. Gray and Chris, his late wife, traveled the country in a camper. Panama City, Fla., was a favorite destination.

As a child, Ms. Bond watched her father work, amazed by a skill she didn’t inherit.

“I’m not artistic at all,” she said. “But he had a talent.”

Other survivors include four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews.