James Byron McGraw
James Byron McGraw was born in Florence, Alabama, the son of James E. and Betty McGraw.
He attended Weeden Elementary School and Weeden Heights Baptist Church until 1971, when the family moved to Hickory, N.C. for three years. In 1974, they moved again, and settled in the community of Middle Valley, the town of Hixson, suburbs of Chattanooga.
Byron was involved with the Boy Scouts, Troop 249, and the Hickory Junior Police. He was a member of the Civil Air Patrol and Boy Scout Troop 78 in Chattanooga. He was in the Air Force ROTC program at Hixson High School where he graduated in 1978. One day after high school he left town for the U.S. Army, where he spent the next seven years. He traveled to Germany and South Korea, and settled at Ft. Campbell, Ky.
After leaving the army in 1985, he had a serious accident while rappelling on Lookout Mountain, breaking his spine and many other bones. After a year of rehabilitation, he attended Chattanooga State Community College until his parents transferred to Chicago. He moved with them to attend DeVry College and became a computer programmer. Later he moved to Montgomery, Al., to be with his mother. After she moved back to Chattanooga in 1997, Byron also moved there to be close to family.
Byron is survived by his brother, Darrell (Pati), Rossville, and sister, Holly (Greg) Bialy, Hixson, many cousins, and special friend, Richard Fielding, Lafayette, Ga., where he had lived since 2020.