Nancy Grace - Early Life

Early Life

Nancy Grace was born in Macon, Georgia, the youngest of three children, to Mac Grace, a freight agent for Southern Railway, and Elizabeth Grace, a factory worker. Grace has two older siblings: a brother, Mac Jr., and a sister, Ginny. The members of the Grace family have been longtime members of Macon's Liberty United Methodist Church, where Nancy's mother Elizabeth plays the church organ and her father Mac was once a Sunday School teacher.

Grace attended high school at Macon's Windsor Academy, graduating in 1977. She attended Valdosta State University, and later received a B.A. from Mercer University. As a student, Grace was a fan of Shakespearean literature, and intended to become an English professor after graduating from college. However, after the murder of her fiancé, Keith Griffin, when she was 19, Grace decided to enroll in law school and went on to become a felony prosecutor and a supporter of victims' rights.

Grace was a member of the law review at and received her Juris Doctor from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer. She went on to earn a Master of Laws in constitutional and criminal law from New York University. She has written articles and opinion pieces for legal periodicals, including the American Bar Association Journal. Grace worked as a clerk for a federal court judge and practiced antitrust and consumer protection law with the Federal Trade Commission. She taught litigation at the Georgia State University College of Law and business law at GSU's School of Business. As of 2006, she is part of Mercer University's board of trustees and adopted a section of the street surrounding the law school.