When William Marion Wheatley was born on 16 November 1878, in Wise, Virginia, United States, his father, John Wheatley, was 25 and his mother, Celia Jenkins, was 29. He married Ora Elizabeth Dean on 12 March 1898, in Wise, Virginia, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son. He lived in Wise, Wise, Virginia, United States in 1880. He died on 9 February 1945, in Norton, Wise, Virginia, United States, at the age of 66, and was buried in Wiley Gardner Cemetery, Needmore, Wise, Virginia, United States.