Grady and Michael Ann Crawford have made a life of connecting people. On the surface, their work may seem vastly different, but, in reality, both have spent their working lives helping bring people together.
Both 1964 graduates of Lamar University, Grady and Michael Ann live in Baton Rouge, La., but have deep Texas roots.
Originally from Longview, Grady first came to Southeast Texas as a teen helping out in his father’s construction business. Later, Grady and two close friends, Bob McLendon ’64 and Larry Shoemaker ’65, were attending Kilgore Junior College when they talked about giving Lamar Tech a try.
That 1960 summer, a high school senior from LaMarque was also choosing a college. Her mother’s insistence that she stay close to home and the encouragement of Delmas Hybarger, an associate professor of education at Lamar and principal at French High School, first drew Michael Ann Agee to Beaumont. But it was what she found there that made her choose to become a Cardinal.
On her first visit to Lamar, “I went to the student union and I saw cute kids, and I liked it,” Michael Ann said.
She soon pledged Alpha Chi Omega along with her roommates Anna Lee (Dunn) Haddox ’64 and Susan (Terry) McLendon ’64. At Susan’s suggestion, she and Grady began to date. “We liked each other from the beginning and went together all four years,” she said. The couple celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary in May. “It worked,” they agreed.
Grady completed his business management degree, and she a degree in education. The newlyweds moved to the Dallas-Forth Worth area, where she took a job teaching elementary school in Grand Prairie and Grady joined American General Investments in the mortgage-banking department.
Soon, the war in Vietnam began to heat up. Michael Ann moved to Longview and taught there while Grady took military training. He would serve six years in the US Army Reserves.
It was then that they decided Grady should try working in his father’s Longview-based construction business. At the time, his father was doing a lot of telecommunication construction, laying underground cable for Southwestern Bell. There, Grady gained valuable experience.
In 1973, his business connections led to a three-year contract with Bell South to help the company upgrade its services in Louisiana. The young family pulled up roots and moved south to Baton Rouge. When they arrived, the couple’s son Clay was 5, and his brother, Casey, was 1. A third boy, Trey, would be born in Baton Rouge. Michael Ann returned to school at Louisiana State University to earn a master’s degree and certification in principalship and supervision.
“One thing led to another,” Grady said. “We were lucky, lucky, lucky.”
When Grady made the move to Louisiana, he took with him a former competitor now-business partner. “It has been a great deal,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a cross word.”
The company became a captive contractor for Bell South, and “Whatever they needed we provided—from supplying people to support their line crews, to burying cable, to putting in conduit systems, to manholes.”
In the early 1980s, Grady’s company began to diversify with other kinds of work, including small pipeline jobs. Then, in the mid-’80s, the fiber optic business “really exploded.”
“Sprint was a new company and we got a lot of opportunities from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to Mobile to Houston,” he said. “We wound up getting those routes or doing subcontractor work for whoever was coming across because we knew the area.”
His reputation for getting the job done right led to contracts for routes from Dallas- Fort Worth to Shreveport. “We’ve worked for most all of them—Quest, Verizon, Sprint, MCI—all the providers,” Grady said. “We’ve had some excellent people – good clients, good employees.” Today, the company employs about 400 people and continues to diversify with jobs including work on strategic oil sites, steel fabrication, building construction and more. “A little bit of everything. We’ll mow your grass,” he said with a chuckle. “We’re not proud people.”
While Grady’s business was connecting the cities of the south, Michael Ann’s education career was fulfilling the needs of generations of students. She taught at St. Luke’s Episcopal School for nine years, then served as principal there eight years. “Being a principal was great,” she said. “We had a lot of positive influences and parental involvement in our school, but the truth was I really liked teaching better.” So much so, in fact, that when she retired from the principalship she transferred to Episcopal Lower School and continued teaching five more years.
Then the time came that their sons Casey and Trey were “getting out of college and planning to get married.” The couple had lost their eldest son, Clay, at age 17 in a swimming accident. “I decided it was time to retire for good to be able to plan weddings,” she said.
So far, all of the grandchildren are girls, Michael Ann said, and a delight to their grandparents. Today, Casey and Trey are making it a third-generation family business, working with their own crews. “They’re really hard workers, good people- persons, and good with employees,” Grady said.
Michael Ann has found plenty to keep her busy since the wedding-days. In particular, she is an advisor with Junior League and a member of the Philanthropic Educational Organization, an international organization with nearly 250,000 members. PEO sponsors Cottey College, a twoyear, independent, liberal arts and sciences college for women in Nevada, Mo. “We do a lot of good things for women,” she said.
Michael Ann has taken up golf and enjoys spending time at the course. Asked if he is ready to join his wife in retirement, Grady said, “I still enjoy what I’m doing and plan to keep going. I always tell them to keep one old backhoe running so they can dig my grave.”
Michael Ann teaches an adult Sunday school class in the Methodist church they attend, and Grady is serving his third year on Lamar’s College of Business advisory council.
“I see the expansion and enthusiasm. It makes you proud that you went to a school that’s getting out there and trying to make things happen,” Grady said, “And it’s a good deal for Southeast Texas.”
“Good clients, good employees, good family and good church,” Grady said. “You just pinch yourself.”
