In 1963, when Alabama Gov. George Wallace literally stood in the doorway to block black students from attending the University of Alabama, Graham, a National Guard general, ordered him aside. “He will always be known as the man who stood Governor Wallace down at the school house door,” said E. Culpepper Clark, a dean at the University. “Graham was a very cool man under fire, and he could be counted on.”
Graham served in the Army in World War II and Korea, and earned a Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Bronze Arrowhead. He died March 21 in Birmingham, Alabama, at age 82.