When John Wilson Witt was born on 19 August 1916, in Athens, McMinn, Tennessee, United States, his father, Elishe Peeler Witt, was 22 and his mother, Birdie Justice Hicks, was 19. He married Edna Marie Ingram on 6 June 1936, in Athens, McMinn, Tennessee, United States. He died on 7 March 2002, in Etowah, McMinn, Tennessee, United States, at the age of 85, and was buried in Etowah, McMinn, Tennessee, United States.