When James Palmer Pearson was born on 2 August 1908, in Blackburn, Pawnee, Oklahoma, United States, his father, Thomas Everett Pearson Jr, was 46 and his mother, Susan Jane Ann Moore, was 41. He married Goldie Margarette Greenleaf on 14 June 1930. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 1 daughter. He lived in Osage, Oklahoma, United States in 1935 and Madison Township, Washington, Oklahoma, United States in 1940. He died in March 1986, in Sperry, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, at the age of 77.