Legend Award
Flora H. Grantham
From the Eastern Shore to becoming ‘a true Johnstonian,’ our Legend award winner has had quite the journey By Randy Capps
When Flora Grantham and her husband, Preston, retired, they moved back to Smithfield, his hometown. Both spent their professional lives working in cancer research, and they developed plans for a home in East Smithfield. But when Preston suddenly passed away in May 1989, Flora, a Maryland native, decided to make Johnston County her home. In the 31 years since then, Grantham has left a lasting legacy on her adopted county, and for that she has earned the 2020 Johnston Now Honors Legend Award. “I’m surprised,” she said. “I’m 22 | JOHNSTON NOW
just an ordinary person.” She’s also modest. In her career as a biological research technician at the National Cancer Institute, she received seven service awards, co-authored 36 scientific reprints with titles like “The Collagen Content of Transplanted Tumors” and earned a patent for a more humane cage for laboratory animals. In looking for ways to spend her retirement years, she picked up the Smithfield Herald and saw plenty of opportunities with the Johnston County Extension.
“I was wondering what to do after spending 32 years in cancer research,” she said. “So, I joined the extension. I got a chance to meet Bruce (Woodard) and a lot of people around here in Johnston County.”
inducted her into the 2020 Class of the Jane S. McKimmon Family and Consumer Services Hall of Fame.
Soon the North Carolina Cooperative Extension had her busy, “working from Murphy to Manteo.”
Sarah Ann Sasser and Ellen Taylor introduced her to Keep Johnston County Beautiful, and with that organization, she helped get “The Historic Architecture of Johnston County, North Carolina” published in December 2016.
She served on the North Carolina State Board of Trustees from 1993-2001, and still serves on the school’s ECA/FCS Foundation Board and the College of Agriculture Advisory Board. For that work, N.C. State
Grantham found things to do closer to home as well.
“They had started the book, but after 20 years, it hadn’t been published,” she said. “We started the Festival of Trees in order to raise enough money
