Gresham, who resided on the historic Cane River Lake in Natchitoches, the oldest city in Louisiana, traveled throughout the globe, particularly South America and Africa, to engage in hunting, fishing and shooting with various American celebrities.
[3] Before Gresham began his career in outdoor journalism, he was on the roster of the Cubs' Shelby, North Carolina farm team but never played.
[4][5] His son, Tom Gresham, learned of the baseball offer from the Cubs several years after his father's death while looking through old family records.
Gresham worked for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and thereafter edited the Louisiana Conservationist magazine.
[3] Gresham died at his home on Cane River Lake in Natchitoches, a small city in north central Louisiana, of complications from Alzheimer's disease – pneumonia and infection.
In addition to his children, he was survived by three sisters, Rosa Schemmel of Wichita, Kansas, and Edith Kelley and Ruth Bedingfield of Ware Shoals in northwestern South Carolina.
Gary Garth, the outdoor editor of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, relates that he became "addicted" to duck hunting as a child, based on the encouragement of Grits Gresham columns.
[9] Joe Macaluso, outdoor editor of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate recalled a fishing trip with Gresham on Toledo Bend Reservoir at the Texas-Louisiana boundary.
When I told him that, he laughed [and said] 'Don’t tell anyone else'..."[8] The Gresham Collection is located at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Foundation in Natchitoches.