When William R. Atkinson was born on 21 August 1914, in Spokane, Spokane, Washington, United States, his father, Christopher Edward Atkinson, was 48 and his mother, Daisy Viola Derrick, was 33. He married Mable Iris Fluaitt on 2 June 1942, in Spokane, Spokane, Washington, United States. He lived in Green Bluff, Spokane, Washington, United States in 1920 and Spokane City, Spokane, Washington, United States in 1940. He died on 10 January 1991, in Spokane, Spokane, Washington, United States, at the age of 76, and was buried in Spokane, Spokane, Washington, United States.