Maxwell Christine Grier (née Banks) was born in Statesville, North Carolina, on December 2, 1898. A student at Shaw University during the first world war, Banks went on to earn degrees from Winston-Salem State and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. She married Cephus Alphonso Grier in 1927 and dedicated many decades of service to the Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County School System as an educator. She died in Winston-Salem on July 8, 2001.