Photo: Grayson is in the center with his hand in his pocket on the front steps of the Woodrow Wilson House on S Street NW, Washington, D.C. He is talking to reporters during Wilson's final illness. This photo was taken in 1924 on the front steps of Wilson’s Washington house on S Street NW. The Woodrow Wilson House.
Cary Grayson served as Wilson's doctor and was his close friend. Grayson was born in Salubria, Virginia, on October 11, 1878. He served as a surgeon in the US Navy beginning in 1903 and was later appointed as a medical officer to the President serving Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft as well as Woodrow Wilson. He met Wilson on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1913, when one of Wilson’s family member slipped and fell in the White House. Wilson was so impressed with the doctor’s manner that he asked for Grayson to be assigned as his personal physician.
Grayson became not only Wilson’s doctor but a good friend and golfing partner. As doctor to the President Grayson also treated Wilson’s first wife, First Lady Ellen Wilson, who died of Bright’s Disease in August 1914. In the spring of 1915 Grayson was concerned that the President was not coming out of his depression after Ellen’s death so he arranged with family members for Wilson to “accidentally” meet Mrs. Edith Galt, a Washington widow. Wilson and Galt hit it off immediately and they were married in December 1915. After Wilson left office, Grayson was assigned as Wilson’s physician as a courtesy and he remained Wilson's primary physician during Wilson’s years on S Street where he visited Wilson often.
Grayson retired as a Rear Admiral and served as the Chairman of the American Red Cross. He died on February 15, 1938 in Washington, D.C. and is buried in Section 24 of Arlington National Cemetery.