Early Years and Family
The French-speaking Gremillion (pronounced GRE ME YOHN) was born to William Kossuth Gremillion and the former Genoa Henderson in Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish near Baton Rouge. He graduated from Catholic High, Donaldsonville and moved to Baton Rouge to attend LSU Louisiana State University and its law school in Baton Rouge from 1931 to 1937. Gremillion's father was a deceased telegraph operator for the Texas and Pacific Railroad; his mother was a school teacher. Coming from meager family means, (with four siblings) he worked his way through college mainly at Solvay Chemical in Baton Rouge. He studied law in under the tutelage of Fred S. LeBlanc, then a practicing attorney in Baton Rouge, and later the attorney general whom Gremillion unseated. Thereafter, Gremillion was admitted to the practice of law and was a member of the American Bar Association.
On January 12, 1942, Gremillion married the former Doris McDonald (July 13, 1920—October 31, 1989). The couple had four sons and a daughter, Jack P.F. Gremillion, Jr. (born 1944), William McDonald Gremillion, Wayne Francis Gremillion (born 1947), Doris H. Gremillion, and Charles Mark Gremillion (born 1958).
He was a member of the Roman Catholic Church and its Knights of Columbus men's organization, the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Elks Club. Before he became attorney general, he had been a counsel to the state revenue department and an assistant district attorney in East Baton Rouge Parish. He was a short, stoutly built, balding man with a loud voice and a determined, self-confident demeanor.
Read more about this topic: Jack P.F. Gremillion
Famous quotes containing the words early, years and/or family:
“I don’t believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The cloud was so dark that it needed all the bright lights that could be turned upon it. But for four years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what a cost!”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“Like many another romance, the romance of the family turns sour when the money runs out. If we really cared about families, we would not let “born again” patriarchs send up moral abstractions as a smokescreen for the scandal of American family economics.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)