Betty Ray McCain is a former secretary of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. She was appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to the post, which she held until 2001.

McCain, who lives in Wilson, N.C., is a former member of the UNC Board of Governors, the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, a former chairman of the N.C. Democratic Party from 1976 to 1979 and co-chairman of Jim Hunt’s campaign for governor in 1976 and 1980, and was a volunteer in Hunt’s 1992 campaign for governor.

Her state and community service includes Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Symphony and the Opera Company of North Carolina, director of the N.C. Institute of Medicine, co-chair of the campaign for the UNC-CH School of Education and president of the N.C. Museum of History Associates. She holds honorary degrees from UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University, UNC Wilmington and Barton College. She also received the “Sam Ragan Angel of the Literary Arts Award” from the N. C. Writers’ Network.

A native of Faison, N.C., she grew up in a house which was built by her grandfather. Her father, Horace T. Ray, was a school principal and a lawyer for 41 years and her mother, Mary Perrett Ray, was a teacher for many years in Faison. McCain attended school in Faison and was valedictorian of her high school class. She attended St. Mary's College in Raleigh and then UNC-CH, where she received a B.A. in music. Afterwards, she attended Columbia University in New York where she received an M.A. degree in music.