now as office space. Gray confesses, though, that she did attend another HBCU before making FAMU home. “I was a [Alabama A&M] Bulldog for three minutes, but came back home to where the rattlers strike,” said Gray, who was crowned in many community and college pageants. Because her high school graduation was scheduled in late June, she was unable to attend Alabama A&M’s summer entry program. So instead, she completed a summer session at FAMU, so as not to miss any credits before officially starting at Alabama A&M where she was offered a full scholarship to study computer science. “The mistake my parents made was allowing me to go to summer session at FAMU. I started the fall semester at Alabama, but at that point, I had something to compare it to. My heart was in Tallahassee. After much prayer, God would have it that they had space for me. So, in the spring, I came back to Florida A&M and finished my whole collegiate career there.” From studying so late that she got locked inside Tucker Hall having to sneak through a window to get out, collecting so many parking tickets that her parents had to help pay for in order to graduate, to becoming the chemistry class heroine by having an allergic reaction that brought the professor to release the class early, Gray’s years as a Rattler were some of the best years of her life, she said.
Where it All Started
More than 20 members of her Gray’s family have graduated from FAMU, and some are currently there. “I don’t remember not being at a homecoming, not having a baby Rattler or junior Rattler orange and green pom poms,” she said. “All that was imprinted in me as long as I have been standing. It’s a family affair when it comes to Florida A&M and me. You cut me, I bleed orange and green after the red.” Gray said she’s most influenced by her Rattler mother who was one of the first women to be chosen to live in the University Honor House, formerly the university’s house where a select few students were chosen to live based on academia and character. The building still stands,
“I was a little skeptical at first when approached, but I found a very safe space at OWN,” said Gray, who was named after her maternal grandmother. “I think I represented well as a wife and mom as I was trying to figure it out with integrity. In one of the episodes, I wear FAMU paraphernalia. That’s my school, and I felt like I represented well. I wanted to be true to myself.” Being on a reality show meant her parents, who lived with her, would also be on television. Cotton wasn’t excited about the fanfare, but her favorite moment was during Thanksgiving when the crew from “The Book of John Gray” participated in a large gathering, alongside the family and young people. “I wasn’t too excited about it, but my husband enjoyed it,” laughed Cotton. “I don’t really like the limelight, but it was a good exposure. Whenever it was our time to do a scene, I was alway kind of nervous about it but we got through it. We had some good times, got close with the staff people.”
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