Raymond "Rhea" Clay Stover was born on August 15, 1899 in Johnson City, Tennessee. He attended Shaw University, Temple University, and Benedict College. During the World War I, Stover worked for the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company in Camden, New Jersey. He was an ordained Baptist minister who served churches in Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Oklahoma. He died on April 23, 1990 in Ridgeway, South Carolina.