James Alexander Gray, Jr. was born on August 21, 1889, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Gray was treasurer and later vice president of the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company before joining the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1919 where he was vice president and later president. He served as state senator representing the twenty-sixth district and was made chairman of the senate finance committee in 1919. Gray died in Winston-Salem on October 29, 1952.