When Clarence Ramsey Tevis was born on 23 July 1928, in Chillicothe, Livingston, Missouri, United States, his father, Thurman Mills Tevis, was 38 and his mother, Lecta Ramsey, was 36. He married Agnes C Abernathy on 4 December 1947, in Chillicothe, Livingston, Missouri, United States. He died on 24 May 2000, in Seneca, Nemaha, Kansas, United States, at the age of 71, and was buried in Seneca, Nemaha, Kansas, United States.