Grailey Hewitt Berryhill (1896-1976), Grailey Hewitt Jaynes (1873-1935)

Portrait from the Tennessee General Assembly composite photograph, 1967-68. 

    A three-term member of the Tennessee General Assembly, Grailey Hewitt Berryhill was born on August 17, 1896, in McKenzie, Tennessee, being the son of Adam Douglas and Harriett Costen Berryhill. He would attend school in Carroll County and later embarked upon the study of medicine at several colleges, including Tulane University, Washington University, and Vanderbilt University. A standout football player at the last-named school, Berryhill earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt in the class of 1921 and had married in June 1920 to Ms. Thelma Harwood (1898-1967). The couple would later have two daughters, Alica Anne Berryhill Boswell (1925-2013) and Dorothy Grailyn (born 1922). 
  Following his graduation from Vanderbilt Berryhill began the practice of medicine in Madison County where he operated for many decades. In addition to being a physician, Berryhill also held memberships in the American Medical Association and both the Tennessee and Madison County Medical Societies. Sources also note that Berryhill was an instrumental figure in the eventual establishment of the West Tennessee School for the Deaf, as he himself suffered from deafness. 

                   Berryhill's college portrait, from the 1921 Vanderbilt Medical School Class Composite.

   While a good majority of Berryhill's life was centered in the private sector, he refrained from entering political life until he was nearly seventy years of age! Recorded as being a Democrat for the majority of his life, Berryhill switched political allegiance in the mid-1960s to the Republican party, and in 1966 was elected to represent the county of Madison in the Tennessee General Assembly. He would serve three terms here, being reelected in 1968 and 1970. His final term concluded in 1973 and he died three years later on January 10, 1976, aged 79. Berryhill had been preceded in death by his wife Thelma in 1967 and both were interred at the Ridgecrest Cemetery in Jackson, Tennessee.

                       Grailey H. Berryhill, from the 1969-70 Tennessee General Assembly composite.

Portrait from the 1917 South Dakota state manual.

  In an update (July 21, 2018) to a nearly four-year-old article, another political office holder named "Grailey" has been discovered--Grailey Hewitt Jaynes of South Dakota. Interestingly, both he and Grailey Berryhill share the same middle name, and both look to have been named in honor of William Morse Grailey Hewitt (1828-1893), a famed British obstetrician, professor, and author of a number of works relating to gynecology. A native of Missouri, Grailey Hewitt Jaynes was born in the town of La Monte on May 27, 1873.  He would be a student in the public schools and later attended the Powers Business College in Chicago.

  Following his removal to South Dakota in 1883, Jaynes would marry Caroline Amanda Bemis (1874-1940) in the late 1890s and later had two sons, Edwin Hewitt and Grailey Hewitt Jr. (1915-1996). For the majority of his life Jaynes was affiliated with the meat market and livestock industry in Pierre and was also elected to the Pierre City Council, and from 1909-1910 served as acting mayor of the city.

  In November 1916 Jaynes was elected from Hughes County to the South Dakota state senate, serving one term (1917-21). Little is known of the remainder of his life, except notice of his death on June 18, 1935. Jaynes was survived by his wife Caroline, and both were later interred at the Riverside Cemetery in Pierre.