Biography:  William Claude Gray of Itawamba County, Mississippi

Source:  Rowland, Dunbar.  The Official and Statistical Register of the 
State of Mississippi, Centennial Edition, 1917.  Madison Wisc.: Democrat 
Publishing Company, 1917.  Pages 868-869.

Copied for inclusion in the USGenweb Project Archives by Lori Thornton
<lorithor@yahoo.com>.

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ITAWAMBA COUNTY.

WILLIAM CLAUDE GRAY of Fulton, Miss., was born June 23, 1891, at Fulton, 
the son of James Monroe Gray and Almira Lillian (Reed) Gray, the latter 
a daughter of John Reed and Mattie (Rodgers) Reed, of Reedsville, Miss.  
James Monroe Gray is the son of William Newton and Anna Catherine (Riggs) 
Gray, and was born at Fayetteville, Ala., where he lived until twenty-one 
years of age.  He then moved to Itawamba County, Miss., where he still 
resides.  He served as Justice of the Peace of his county from 1899 to 
1903.  Representative Gray's great-grandparents, John Riggs and Sarah 
Elizabeth (Conley) Riggs, were born in South Carolina of English parentage.  
His maternal great-grandparents were William Reed of Scotch-Irish descent, 
and Elizabeth (Talent) Reed of Irish ancestry.  Mr. Gray was educated in 
the free schools of Itawamba County and took High School training at 
Henderson, Tenn.; later, took L. I. degree in National Teachers' Normal & 
Business College, at Henderson, Tenn.  With the same determination that 
characterized his efforts in obtaining an education, he began a 
successful career as teacher and farmer combined.  He has taught, for 
five years, in the rural schools of Itawamba County.  Gaining in these 
two important home industries, the respect and confidence of his felow 
[sic.] citizens, he was, in 1915, elected to the House of Representatives 
from his county.  He has filled this position with exceptionable ability, 
his deep interest in the State's welfare being clearly manifested in all 
his work in that body.  He has a high sense of justice and commands the 
respect and the good will of his legislative associates, as an able right-
thinking and fair-minded law-maker.  He serves on the following committees:  
Agriculture; Education; Registrations and Elections; Federal Regulations; 
Insurance.  Mr. Gray is a Democrat and belongs to the Christian Church.  
On October 26, 1913, he was married to Miss Vela Moore, daughter of Clem 
Moore and Mary Lillie (Harden) Moore, of Fulton, Miss.