Dr. Nancy Jane Grayson

Dr. Nancy Jane Grayson, long-time faculty member at Texas State University, died on July 11, 2025, at the age of 91. Born February 10, 1934, to T. V. Grayson and Janie Hagy Grayson, Dr. Grayson grew up in Abilene, Texas. She earned a BA in English and Spanish from Texas Christian University in 1956, a MA in English from UT-Austin in 1958, and a PhD in English from UT-Austin in 1968. Upon completing the doctorate, she joined Southwest Texas State University, now Texas State University, as an Assistant Professor. She was promoted to the ranks of Associate Professor in 1972 and full Professor in 1983. From 1987 to 1993, she served as acting chair and then chair of the Department of English; from 1998 to 2017 she served as Associate Dean of Liberal Arts for Student Academic Affairs. In 2018, the University honored her as Distinguished Professor Emerita of English.

During her forty-nine years at Texas State, colleagues and students alike valued Dr. Grayson as an outstanding professor. She taught thousands of undergraduate and graduate students, directed and served on dozens of thesis committees, and, as an advisor and counselor in the Dean’s office, worked with hundreds of students in need of special academic assistance. One 1983 student spoke for many, writing that she owed much to Dr. Grayson for “giving of herself and her time,” adding, “I have the utmost respect and admiration for her because I know she does this for each and every student.” For her teaching, she was honored with Texas State’s Faculty Senate Award for Excellence.

Dr. Grayson’s extensive service to the department, university, and profession contributed to her professional excellence. She was, for example, co-author of a proposal for NEH Institutes at Texas State and authored proposals to the Texas Committee for the Humanities. She chaired and was a member of search committees for college deans and other administrators, as well as for dozens of faculty in the Department of English. She chaired the University’s Honors Program Committee, once serving as the program’s Acting Director. She was a member of the General Studies Advisory Council and served on the University’s Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies Councils. Within the English department, she chaired committees that revised undergraduate curricula, and she directed programs for first-year writing, sophomore courses, and advanced undergraduate studies. She chaired and organized impressive visiting writers’ series and guided development of the English department’s MFA in Creative Writing.

Dr. Grayson was an avid and fearless traveler, visiting Europe multiple times and for many years making annual trips to Alaska. In retirement, her enthusiasm for fine art grew as she visited some of the world’s most important museums and enrolled in and earned certificates of accomplishment for nearly all the art history courses offered by the Barnes Foundation in Fine Arts. For many years, she led a poetry reading group at her Westminster residence in Austin, sharing her love of verse and fostering enduring friendships.

She will be remembered for her warmth and kindness to friends, students, and faculty at all levels, and for her fascinating combination of native Texas grit, worldly sophistication, sharp wit, knowledge of literary history and criticism, devotion to literature and the fine arts, and courage to face reality without flinching.

Dr. Grayson is survived by cousins in Port Angeles, Washington, and by friends in Austin, San Marcos, Chicago, and across the country.

A graveside service will be held at Austin Memorial Park on November 8th, 2025 at 11 AM. A reception will follow at Weed Corley Fish Funeral Home 5416 Parkcrest Drive, Austin, Texas.

Donations in memory of Dr. Grayson may be made to one or both of the Texas State scholarships that honor her mother, the Janie M. Grayson Scholarship in English (https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/55723/donations/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/55723/donations/ new?designation= janiemgraysongraduatescholarshipinenglish&), and her father, the T. V. Grayson Endowed Memorial Graduate Fellowship in English (https://www.givecampus.com/ campaigns/55723/ donations/new?designation=thetvgraysonendowedmemorialgraduatefellowshipinenglish&).