Louie was born on May 13, 1887 to Benjamin Ruff Grinstead and Kate Amanda (nee Rugh) on a family farm near Azen in Scotland County Missouri.

He served in the US Army in Europe during WW I. He was awarded a purple heart after suffering injury as the result of a poison gas attack.

He later graduated from the University of Missouri and still later was on the Editorial Staff of the School of Agriculture there.

Louie never married.

He died on July 13, 1972 in Scotland County, Missouri and was buried at Prairie View Methodist Church Cemetery.