Early Years, Education, Military
Grenier (pronounced Grain YEY) was born in New Orleans, the youngest of three children of Charles Desire Grenier, Jr., a banker, and the former Beatrice Schaumburg (1893–1971). He graduated from Jesuit High School in New Orleans and lettered in track, football and baseball. In 1953, Grenier received his undergraduate and law degrees, having completed a five-year program at Tulane University. Then he served as a United States Marine Corps pilot in South Korea after the Korean War, having attained the rank of captain. He flew more than one hundred patrols with VMF-312, the "Checkerboard Squadron".
After Tulane, Grenier married the former Lynne Youmans (born 1932); they moved to Birmingham, the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. They had one son, John Beaulieu "Beau" Grenier, Sr. (born 1956), a Birmingham attorney married to Joy Grenier. John and Lynne Grenier were divorced in 1983; in 1991, Grenier married the former Stella Kontos (born 1950). In addition to his wife and son, Grenier was survived by four grandchildren by his son Beau and former daughter-in-law, Celeste Crowe Grenier (born 1958 of Mobile) a Birmingham attorney: John Beaulieu Grenier, Jr. (born 1986), Dorothy Monnish Grenier (born 1989), Evans Barlow Grenier (born 1991) and Carolyn Youmans Grenier (born 1994) of Birmingham, and a sister, Rosemary Grenier Rivet of San Diego, California.
After his military service, Grenier enrolled at New York University in New York City, where he received an LL.M. degree in taxation. He practiced law briefly on Wall Street before he and Lynne relocated to Birmingham so that he could join the staff of the Southern Natural Gas Company. He subsequently joined the law firm Bradley Arant Rose & White, where he became a partner and practiced corporate and tax law under the tutelage and mentorship of Lee C. Bradley, Jr. He then joined the firm formerly known as Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville and was a partner there for some thirty-five years before his retirement in 2004.
Read more about this topic: John Grenier
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