When Bessie Duane Stearns was born on 2 April 1920, in Eclectic, Elmore, Alabama, United States, her father, George Dewey Stearns, was 21 and her mother, Dovie Lula Edwards, was 21. She married Charles Kenneth Thompson on 6 July 1940, in Yuma, Yuma, Arizona, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 3 daughters. She lived in Central, Elmore, Alabama, United States in 1930. She died on 1 April 1992, in Idaho Falls, Bonneville, Idaho, United States, at the age of 71.