Early Years, Family, and Education
DeGravelles (pronounced De GRA Vell) was born in Morgan City, located in both St. Martin and St. Mary parishes, to Charles C. deGravelles, Sr. (1883–1948), and the former Mary Eleanor Nations, originally from Beeville, Texas. He was reared in Thibodaux, the parish seat of Lafourche Parish. His physician-father practiced in Morgan City from 1910 to 1933 and thereafter in New Iberia, where he was the last doctor to make house calls. Mary deGravelles died, and Charles, Sr., married the former Mary Riddle, originally from Bentonville, Arkansas. DeGravelles had a brother, Norbert Roth deGravelles and a half-sister by the father's second marriage, Martha Tabb deGravelles Marcantel The obituary of deGravelles, Jr., indicates that an uncle, E. N. Roth, Jr., was instrumental in young Charles's rearing, presumably after the death of Mary Nations deGravelles.
DeGravelles graduated from Thibodaux High School in 1930. He then enrolled at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he met Virginia, the daughter of a hotel owner from Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the largest city in Central Louisiana. On September 14, 1935, the couple eloped and were married by a justice of the peace in Woodville in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. They had five children: twin sons (born 1949), Charles Nations deGravelles, an Episcopal archdeacon, and John W. deGravelles, an attorney, both from Baton Rouge, and three daughters, Mary Alix deGravelles (deceased), Elizabeth Claire Cloniger and husband, Spike, of Fairhope in Baldwin County near Mobile, Alabama, and Virginia Ann McBride Norton of Bali, Indonesia. Claire is a writer of books and Christian music. Ann owns a photographic company, Photo Voice. Son-in-law Ed Norton works for the Nature Conservancy in environmental projects. DeGravelles' eldest child Alix was a therapist and social worker. She died of lung cancer in 1999. At the time of his death, Charles and Virginia had thirteen grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
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