This story was updated at 3:25 p.m. to provide the correct location of Grambling State University

Devon Raymond Jr. came to live with Gov. Paul LePage’s family in August 2002 with nothing but a suitcase, some golfing gear, ill-fitting shoes and a Bible, according to the governor’s office.

Raymond, 25, was thrust into the spotlight Friday, when LePage mentioned him while making controversial comments about the NAACP.

“And if they want, they can look at my family picture,” LePage said Friday of the NAACP. “My son happens to be black, so they can do whatever they’d like about it.”

Dan Demeritt, the governor’s spokesman, said Saturday that Raymond would not be available for interviews by the press. Raymond attended the inauguration last week with other family members, but lives in Monroe, La., where he attends college.

The LePages met Raymond in Jamaica through his father, who caddied for Paul LePage during an island vacation, according to Demeritt.

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Raymond is not a U.S. citizen, nor has he yet been formally adopted by the LePages.

Raymond moved to Waterville and graduated in 2003 from Waterville High School, where he played on the school’s golf team. He attended Husson University — LePage’s alma mater — for a year and a half, playing golf and studying sports management.

He then studied at Grambling State University in Louisiana, where he graduated with a degree in kinesiology — the study of human movement — and a minor in sports management.

After a stint as a golf club pro in North Carolina, Raymond is now enrolled at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, where he is studying for a master’s degree in business administration, Demeritt said.

In his biography on the social networking site Twitter, Raymond describes himself as “chasing the dreams of being a PGA pro.”

“My dreams are my motivation,” he wrote. “Love positive people and energy.”

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In 2005, he wrote on a Jamaican social networking site that he had moved to the United States to “finish high school and get a college education” and also pursue a golf career.

Raymond is from an area of St. Ann’s Parish, Jamaica, called Runaway Bay, on the north side of the island between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.

Gov. LePage and his wife, Ann, have two children: Paul LePage II, 21, who attends college in Florida, and Lauren LePage, 22, the new assistant to LePage’s chief of staff, John McGough. She lives in the Blaine House in Augusta.

Gov. LePage has two daughters from a previous marriage, Lindsay and Lisa, who live in Canada.

 


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