When Leon Jackson Fears was born on 23 September 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, his father, Jesse Monroe Fears, was 32 and his mother, Mary Jane "Mamie" Vaughn, was 31. He married Lottie Jane Rayfield on 31 March 1951, in Clay, Arkansas, United States. He lived in Reynolds, Missouri, United States in 1935 and Meramec Township, St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1940. He died on 5 July 2009, in Jefferson, Missouri, United States, at the age of 80, and was buried in Cedar Hill, Coke, Texas, United States.