When Walter Bernard Lunsford was born on 15 March 1889, in Del Rio, Cocke, Tennessee, United States, his father, James Madison Lunsford, was 27 and his mother, Mary Susana Shelton, was 21. He married Ollie Ethel Murray on 2 February 1918, in Cocke, Tennessee, United States. They were the parents of at least 4 daughters. He lived in Greenville, Greenville, South Carolina, United States in 1920 and Lowell, Gaston, North Carolina, United States in 1930. He died on 24 April 1959, in Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina, United States, at the age of 70, and was buried in Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina, United States.