When James Dea Turner was born on 2 October 1882, in Warren, Tennessee, United States, his father, James Buchanon Turner, was 28 and his mother, Mira Jane Dodson, was 24. He married Ollie V. Kesey on 3 April 1904, in Warren, Tennessee, United States. He lived in Civil District 5, Warren, Tennessee, United States in 1920. He died on 24 June 1963, in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States, at the age of 80, and was buried in Smyrna, Warren, Tennessee, United States.