When James Walter Berry was born on 8 March 1885, in Okolona, Chickasaw, Mississippi, United States, his father, Charles Porter Berry, was 22 and his mother, Susan Emeline Wall, was 20. He married May Elizabeth Spriggs on 30 July 1903. They were the parents of at least 2 sons. He lived in Eureka, Juab, Utah, United States in 1910 and Seattle, King, Washington, United States in 1920. He died in May 1958, at the age of 73.