Mary Ellen Ray (3 January 1931 – 10 September 2004) was an American-born actress who had a career in the United Kingdom. She was born as Mary Ellen McPherson in Springfield, Missouri in the United States in 1931 to 17 year-old Hayzle McPherson and her husband Owen M McPherson. Following her parents' divorce in 1937 and her mother's remarriage to Earl Ray she assumed her stepfather's surname. In 1952 as a 21-year-old secretary she sailed on the RMS Queen Mary from New York to Spain with her two younger siblings and her mother, Hayzle Ray. Here she met the British poet (1927–2018) who was teaching English in Ibiza in Spain. The two returned to England until her visa expired leading to their marriage in 1955 in Madrid; the couple had two daughters, Sarah Edkins and Lucy Edkins, a stage manag