Nellie Gray is an American pro-life activist, who founded the annual March for Life, beginning in 1974, following the Supreme Court ruling, Roe v Wade, which decriminalized abortion the previous year.
A native of Texas and a Roman Catholic convert, Miss Gray served as a corporal in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) during World War II. She later earned a bachelor's degree in business and a master's in economics.
She was an employee of the federal government for almost three decades, at the Departments of State and Labor. After attending Georgetown University Law School, she became a practicing lawyer. After Roe v Wade, she retired from her professional life and became a pro-life activist, beginning with the March for Life.[1]
Gray has been referred to by Sean Cardinal O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, as "... the Joan of Arc of the Gospel of life."[2]