Clint Grant

Photograph by Clint Grant of a tiger cub watching a butterfly, part of a collection donated by Grant to the Dallas Public Library

Donald Clinton "Clint" Grant^[1] (August 17, 1916 – April 21, 2010)^[2] was a photographer and photojournalist based in Dallas, Texas. Grant served as a staff photographer with The Dallas Morning News from 1949 to 1986. He was particularly well known for his "humorous and touching" images of animals and children.^[3] Grant's photographs were published in numerous newspapers and magazines, including Paris Match, Newsweek and Time; five of his feature photos were published on the back page of issues of Life magazine. Grant was also on assignment in November 1963 to cover President John F. Kennedy's trip from Washington, D.C., to Dallas. One of his photographs made the front page of the November 22 edition of the Morning News; he would also make several pictures at Parkland Memorial Hospital within minutes after Kennedy's motorcade arrived following the shooting in Dealey Plaza.

Grant died in Dallas at age 93. Heart failure was listed as the cause of death.

Early life

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Grant attended Vanderbilt University. The economic turmoil of the Great Depression forced his family to move from Nashville to Dallas. There, his father was asked to lead the Art Department at the Morning News. Grant himself got a job with the Photo Department but, one month before he was to report to work, he was drafted into the United States Army and served during World War II in Europe, where he never used a camera.

Grant married Myrtis Ann Halliburton in 1939^[4] after a brief courtship; they'd known each other for ten months before they walked down the aisle. When they met, he worked behind the dairy counter at the local A&P market where she was a customer.^[5]

Photography and photojournalism

When Grant returned from overseas to Dallas in 1945, all Morning News staff photographers resumed their duties, leaving him without a job. He managed a photo studio until a position at the newspaper opened up in 1949.^[6]

During his early years with the News, Grant was one of up to ten staff photographers, including Jack Beers, Tom Dillard and Doris Jacoby.^[7] He gained a reputation as a "kind and generous" mentor while with the newspaper, accompanying many young photographers on their early assignments.^[8] His editor said Grant's knack for putting both people and animals at ease for photographs came largely because he "had the patience of Job."^[9]

Grant taught classes in photography in the 1950s and '60s at North Texas University, where he served on the journalism advisory board.^[10] He was also the official photographer for the Dallas Zoo and the State Fair of Texas.^[1]

Grant once said he had his own tricks for making photos, especially of unwilling subjects at the sites of news stories. He would pre-focus, pretend to not aim the camera, and "shoot from the hip." He believed that any good photojournalist should have the skills necessary to do the job without needing to use the viewfinder.^[8]

Grant's photograph of (l–r) Presidents Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy, House Parliamentarian Clarence Cannon, and Vice President Johnson at the 1961 funeral for U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn in Bonham, Texas

One of Grant's photos was blown up to eight feet and displayed for one year in Grand Central Terminal in New York. He also photographed the culinary creations of some of the best chefs in Dallas, who all knew Grant and respected his work. A menu item at the Casa Dominguez restaurant in Dallas was named for Grant.^[6]

Two collections of Grant's work have been published: Moments from Life: An Exhibition of Photographs from the Grant Estate in 2000, and 50 Years of the Best Photos of Clint Grant in 2001.^[11] Moments from Life was published to accompany a traveling exhibit of 55 of Grant's images.^[10] One of his photographs was included in Humor in News Photography, a collection published in 1961. Grant was assigned to photograph some new cars and laid his hat atop one of the taillights; the resulting image resembled "a Halloween spook, a Martian or the pilot of a satellite."^[12] A Grant picture published by Life magazine was included in its 1988 compilation Life Smiles Back.^[6]

In addition to his feature photographs, Grant was known for his work accompanying hard news stories. Grant photographed every U.S. president and vice president starting with Harry S. Truman and through the administration of George H. W. Bush.^[6] He was present for the 1961 funeral for three-time House Speaker Sam Rayburn, where he captured former Presidents Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, President Kennedy, House Parliamentarian Clarence Cannon, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson standing together.^[13]

The candidates in Texas, 1960

Kennedy and Johnson were on the verge of securing their spots on the Democrats' ticket when they took a two-day swing through the Dallas–Fort Worth area in September 1960. Landing at Meacham Airport, the candidates rode in a motorcade through Dallas to the Chance Vought Aircraft factory, where Kennedy made an address. Clint Grant accompanied Kennedy and Johnson, making numerous photographs of the trip; the pictures were developed, but kept in storage until their publication in 2013.^[14]

President Kennedy in Dallas, 1963

Cropped image made by Grant in Dealey Plaza just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Witnesses Bill and Gayle Newman cover their children on the lawn as photographers run further southwest along the "grassy knoll". Grant's brother-in law, Associated Press photojournalist Ike Altgens, stands at the curb to photo-right.

Grant was the one photographer who was with President John F. Kennedy during the trip from Washington, D.C., to Texas in November, 1963.^[6] At Dallas Love Field, Grant made the only published photograph from that visit of the president and Jacqueline Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, and Texas Governor John Connally and Nellie Connally, all in the same image.^[15] Another of Grant's photos, from San Antonio's Aerospace Medicine Center, was published on the front page of the Dallas Morning News on November 22; a copy was signed that morning by President Kennedy—across the photo, "to Jan White"—and is believed to be the last item he signed before he climbed aboard the presidential limousine for his intended trip to the Dallas Trade Mart.^[16]

Grant tried to find a seat in the third camera car in the motorcade—the one reserved for local photographers—but it was full; he was then given a spot in the second camera car.^[17] Too far back to capture the shooting in Dealey Plaza, Grant's car had just turned onto Houston Street from Main Street "when we heard one shot—pause—two shots in rapid succession." Thinking someone was playing a prank, he gave it no further thought until he saw bystanders "prone on the ground" along Elm Street,^[18] where he made a photograph from the moving camera car of Bill and Gayle Newman lying atop their children on the grass. Several photographers are also seen in the frame; one of them is Grant's brother-in-law, Associated Press photojournalist Ike Altgens.

Afterwards, Grant suggested to his colleagues that they should catch up with the presidential limousine.^[19] Since he was the only Dallas-based member of the press in camera car two, Grant directed his driver to the Trade Mart, where they saw "no cars, no activity". A worker across the street said he saw a limousine speed past, accompanied by motorcycles with their sirens blaring; Grant knew immediately that they were headed to Parkland Memorial Hospital.^[20] Once at Parkland, Grant started snapping pictures of anything he could, including Vice President Johnson's car, and a man and a police officer "delivering a box thought to contain blood plasma."^[21]

Twenty-five years later, Grant wrote that the assassination didn't really sink in until after he'd finished his work that day. "Then I was stunned, disappointed and embarrassed that it had happened—especially in my home town. I felt like crawling under a log. Although I wasn't a great admirer, he was my President and I have great respect for whoever holds the office."^[22]

"Reporters Remember 11-22-63"

Grant took part in "Reporters Remember 11-22-63" at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in November 1993. The panel discussion, broadcast on C-SPAN as Journalists Remember the JFK Assassination, featured members of the press who spoke of their experiences on the day 30 years earlier that Kennedy was killed. From the dais, Grant recalled having asked his boss if he should go back to Washington, D.C., with Kennedy's body and being told no. Grant said he returned to Love Field to retrieve his luggage ahead of a planned visit to Vice President Johnson's ranch nearby; just as he reached the planes he saw Judge Sarah T. Hughes leaving Air Force One. "I'd just missed her swearing in the new President."^[23]

Later life and death

Grant officially retired his position with The Dallas Morning News in 1986 but continued to work in semi-retirement until 1997.^[6] Five years later, Grant was awarded an honorary degree from Knox College in Illinois, which congratulated Grant for "more than 100 state, regional and national honors for photojournalism". Associate Professor of Art Lynette Lombard lauded Grant for his body of work starting in 1963 and, in particular, his pictures "of world leaders, of children and of everyday life." In her address, Lombard called Grant one of the most important photojournalists in the country and a pioneer in his field as a "documentation of the public record."^[24]

Clint Grant died of heart failure in his Dallas home in 2010.^[6] When Grant passed away, he and Myrtis Grant had been married nearly 71 years;^[4] she died in Dallas six months later.^[25]

See also

• Ike Altgens
• Mal Couch
• Robert H. Jackson
• Cecil W. Stoughton

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

• Faber, John, ed. (1961). Humor in News Photography (hardcover ed.). National Press Photographers Association. ASIN B000KK813I.  Cited as Faber 1961.
• Trask, Richard B. (1994). Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy (hardcover ed.). Yeoman Press. ISBN 0-9638595-0-1.  Cited as Trask 1994.

External links

• Clint Grant: Glimpses of Life and Other Realities (part of a collection hosted by the Dallas Public Library)
• Interactives: JFK's Forgotten Dallas Motorcade (The Dallas Morning News, story by Alan Peppard, photos by Clint Grant [restored and digitized])