Lonnie Algusta Marshall was born in Milican, Texas, in 1898. The 1910 census indicates that he lived with his grandparents, Cager and Rebecca Scott. He first married Grace C. Marshall, then, in 1953, married Queen Esther Laws in Wakulla, Florida. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Prairie View State Normal & Industrial College (later Prairie View A&M University) in 1924, followed by a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Iowa State College and a Master’s degree from Iowa State College in 1930.
Marshall’s professional career spanned multiple states and academic institutions. In 1929, he served as an Instructor of Teacher Training and Science, an itinerant Smith-Hughes agricultural teacher at Florida Agricultural College for Negroes (now Florida A&M University). In 1931, he began teaching at Princess Anne Academy, and by 1933-1934, he worked as the professor in charge of the Demonstration Farm. He was promoted to Director of Agriculture at Princess Anne Academy and continued to serve as a professor until 1940, until he returned to Florida A&M. At Florida A&M, he served as a representative of Florida A&M as a Negro Deputy on the War Bonds Staff and was later, in 1948, was listed as an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Education, State itinerant teacher-training in Vocational Agriculture.
Marshall died in Tallahassee, Florida where he was buried at the Tallahassee Memorial Gardens.
