Birth Name: Paul Dedrick Gray
Date of Birth: April 8, 1972
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Death: May 24, 2010
Place of Death: Johnston, Iowa, United States
Ethnicity:
*unknown (father)
*English, 1/64th or less Choctaw Native American, some German, remote French, remote Irish, remote Scottish (mother)
Paul Gray was an American musician. He is known as the bassist and one of the founding members of the American metal band Slipknot. He was the son of Paul Anthony Gray and Nancy Diane (Cary) Miller. He is married to Brenna Marie Friedman.
Paul’s maternal grandfather was Paul Sterling Cary (the son of Sterling Paul Cary and Effa D. Tucker). Paul’s great-grandfather Sterling was the son of William H. Cary and Martha Elizabeth Keltner. Effa was the daughter of William Anderson Tucker and Emily W. Cox.
Paul’s maternal grandmother was Helen Elizabeth Bolling (the daughter of John Franklin Bolling and Nancy Isabel Denton). John was the son of George Franklin Bolling and Octavia Toole. Nancy was the daughter of John Denton and Johnie Chapin.
Paul’s great-great-grandmother Octavia Toole was the daughter of Alfred Toole and Belinda Yates. Paul’s great-great-great-grandmother Belinda was the daughter of a white father, Allen Yates, and of Millie Nail, described in one account as “a half-breed Choctaw woman”. The family were official members of the Choctaw Native American tribe.
Sources: Paul’s birth record – https://familysearch.org
Paul’s obituary – http://www.hamiltonsfuneralhome.com
Marriage record of Paul’s parents – https://familysearch.org
Birth record of Paul’s mother – https://familysearch.org
Paul’s maternal grandparents, Paul Sterling Cary and Helen Elizabeth Bolling, on the 1940 US Census – https://familysearch.org
Genealogy of Paul’s maternal grandmother, Helen Elizabeth Bolling – http://www.choctawnation.com