Marvin A. Grant, Jr, (“Marty”) and Karla N. Grant of North Carolina

Marty and Karla Grant

[Home] [What’s New?] [Books for Sale] [Christian] [Genealogy] [Search] [Support] [About] [Contact]

[Grant Home] - [Table of Contents] - Marty Grant

Note: This page contains information on living persons so the details will be kept to a minimum.

My Grant book covers my Grant ancestry in great detail. Get yourself a copy. If a printed version isn’t desirable or practical for you, get the PDF version. It’s much less expensive.

Marvin Alan Grant, Jr was born in Marion Co., SC to Marvin A. Grant (Sr) and Faye Campbell Grant. I was named after my father, who in turn was named in part for his grandfather, Marvin R. Grant. Since Marvin R. went by “Marvin” and Marvin A. went by “Alan” they decided to call me by a nickname to avoid confusion, thus came up with “Marty.”

When I asked them where they got the name from, thinking I was perhaps named for singer Marty Robbins, I was informed that they got the name from one of the “Mousketeers” on The Mickey Mouse Club, a TV program my parents grew up watching. Marty Markham was one of the characters on that show in the mid 1950s played by actor David Stollery. My folks apparently liked the name and/or the character, thus I became Marty. To this day, many assume it’s short for “Martin,” but alas, it is not.

We lived in Marion Co., SC only briefly before my parents moved us to Grundy, Buchanan Co., VA where we resided in an old mining camp. My dad drove a truck for either Pepsi or Coca-Cola, I don’t recall which. It was a rugged area and roads were treacherous in the winter and my dad had many harrowing work days on the icy mountain roads, thus we didn’t remain there long. Soon we moved to Marietta, Cobb Co., GA and lived in a house rented to us by my dad’s aunt Bobby Grant Sawyer. There my dad worked as a glazier and helped install glass in homes and businesses. He didn’t like that job, especially after a scaffolding collapse left him hanging several stories above the ground in Atlanta.

We moved from Marietta to Enfield, Halifax Co., NC, where my dad worked for the lumber company a short while with his father. Soon though, Daddy got a job with IBM and we moved to Durham Co., NC and resided in the country north and east of the city. There we remained until after I finished first grade. Then we moved to the country east of Hillsborough, in Orange Co., NC. We lived in B&W Trailer park off of Business US 70 for about a year or so, then moved to Byrdsville off of old Highway 10 just a few miles from where we’d been, still south and east of Hillsborough. We remained there until the middle of 4^th grade when we moved to Eastover, Richland Co., SC and then to Kinston, Lenoir Co., NC, but back to Hillsborough (and Byrdsville) in time to finish the 5^th grade there. We remained in Byrdsville until I graduated High School.

I joined the Air Force while I was still 17 on delayed enlistment. Meanwhile I got a job as a delivery driver for R. J. Specialty Company in Hillsborough, owned and operated by Raymond and Jean Montgomery and their son Ray. I worked with them until it was time to begin my enlistment.

I went to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Bexar Co., TX for boot camp, then to Keesler AFB, near Biloxi, MS for technical training in Personnel Management. I spent a few weeks back home before going off to my one and only assignment at Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota. There I spent the rest of my enlistment, excepting a few brief temporary assignments elsewhere. I worked in Personnel Systems Management, which was the computer support for the Personnel Division.

My first day at work I met my future wife, Karla Mangus. She worked in the Personnel Division as well. She’d been in a year at that point, so her 4 years ended with me still having a year to go. We were engaged by then, but she returned home to Illinois for a few months. She was born in Washington state, but had grown up in Peoria Co., IL in the country near the small town of Brimfield. She was one of six children, whereas I was an only child.

We married at her home church then returned to Grand Forks so I could finish my enlistment. Upon leaving active duty we stayed with her parents in Illinois a couple of weeks, then moved in with my parents in North Carolina for about 3 months.

We then moved to Kinston, NC where I’d lived briefly several years earlier. Our reason for locating here was so Karla could finish Court Reporting School which she’d started before we left North Dakota. LCC was the only school in North Carolina that offered that program.

She soon graduated with an Associates Degree from Lenoir Community College, and then had a lengthy career as an official court reporter until retiring.

When we first arrived in Kinston, I got a job with the City of Kinston in the computer department and worked there for four years. I left there to work for Logics, a software development company in Raleigh whose programs Kinston used. I commuted to Raleigh at first, but that didn’t work out, so I began working from home and also traveled to customers for onsite support. I worked there for eight years before being laid off. I then went to work with my friend Jim Glisson with his companies Software Solutions and Ag-Soft, and one we formed together, Brothers in Christ Software.

Karla and I still reside near Kinston, NC. She’s retired, but I continue working, mostly from home.

Revised: August 13, 2026

[Home] [What’s New?] [Books for Sale] [Christian] [Genealogy] [Search] [Support] [About] [Contact]