The Man and his Journey

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Grady and his brother Danny

Grady Bankhead’s life journey didn’t begin or end with his conviction of capital murder and subsequent death sentence.

Years earlier, his life had taken an abrupt and tragic turn when his mother abandoned him and his younger brother Danny on the steps of a derelict farmhouse.

Although she assured them that she would be "right back", Grady did not see her again until he was on death row.

It wasn’t long after they were found that Danny passed away.

Grady was taken in by his grandmother and raised by a series of care givers over the years.

"For a year I was sent to live with my aunt and uncle, Lee and Evelyn Allen, who will remain in my mind as the model for a loving couple. Their children, my first cousins Lee, Lise, and Susie, are and will remain my anchors so that I can always feel I have loved ones. I am really grateful for a lot of my childhood memories and looking more positively towards the future every day." - Grady Bankhead, October, 2009

Grady married, had children and lived the life of a working family man for many years. It was a constant struggle financially. He worked at whatever jobs he could get. He didn’t give much thought to God, religion and certainly not a spiritual path. He kept his head down and pushed through whatever troubles came his way. Over the years, his struggle to live “the American Dream” fell apart. It was a rapid descent into hard times and drinking with harder people. Grady’s life as a husband, father and family man ended when men that he didn’t know but shared a night of drinking with, committed a brutal robbery and murder.

Convicted of Capital murder in 1983, Grady was sentenced to death. He was held on death row for over eight years. Within days of his scheduled execution, his death sentence was vacated; he was re-tried and given life without the possibility of parole. Grady has served over twenty-three years at Donaldson.

While in Donaldson, Grady learned from other inmates that his beloved daughter Brandy had been brutally raped and murdered. It took all that Grady had in him and all that he believed to be true to accept and forgive the man who had ended her life. He says that he "had no other choice, I had to love the man." Grady has had to deal with the pain and loss that family survivors of violence have always known.

A man in Grady’s world is known by his acts, not by his words. Prior to the first Vipassana course in 2002 and continuing with the January, 2010 course, Grady continues to be of service to the Donaldson staff and a source of encouragement for his fellow Dhamma Brothers.