Alice Shelton Gray was born on this day in 1886, in Winston-Salem, to Robah Fidus and Lelia Wilson Gray.
Alice (Polly) was educated in Salisbury and was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
She joined the American Red Cross during World War I and served under the U. S. Army Medical Corps in two hospitals in France.
She helped organize the American Legion after the war, and was the first woman to serve on its executive committee. She later became national vice commander of the legion.
She also helped found the Clyde Bolling Post, the Winston-Salem Chapter of the American Legion. And, she helped found the Forsyth County chapter of the American Red Cross after World War I.
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company provided first aid stations for injured employees, and Alice Gray was one of the women who worked as nurses. She was one of the advocates for the establishment of a medical department at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which happened in the early 1920s.
Alice worked with the Red Cross to help raise money for wartime services during World War II. She was honored in 1975 with the Sertoma’s Club Service to Mankind award for outstanding service to the community and the state. She was cited as “always a pioneer, decades ahead of her time.”
Alice passed away in 1982.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
