When Frank R Tanner was born on 5 April 1908, in Illinois, United States, his father, Frank Norman Tanner, was 35 and his mother, Alice Radford, was 37. He married Dorothy Mae Green on 18 May 1932, in Newport, Campbell, Kentucky, United States. He lived in Bloomington Precinct, McLean, Illinois, United States in 1920 and Fort Mitchell, Kenton, Kentucky, United States for about 10 years. He died on 15 March 1989, in Kenton, Kentucky, United States, at the age of 80, and was buried in Fort Mitchell, Kenton, Kentucky, United States.