When Lucy Pearl Deskins was born in September 1897, her father, John Witten Deskins, was 42 and her mother, Ada Zumach Ratliff, was 36. She married William Cleveland Shortridge on 15 May 1914, in Grundy, Buchanan, Virginia, United States. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 4 daughters. She died on 18 October 1971, at the age of 74.