When Viola LaFerney was born on 5 February 1924, her father, Henry Lester Laferney, was 22 and her mother, Evelyn Mary Laferney, was 15. She married Ardis Aaron Powell on 17 January 1945. She lived in Dunklin, Missouri, United States in 1935 and La Font Township, New Madrid, Missouri, United States in 1940. She died on 2 March 2008, in Claiborne, Louisiana, United States, at the age of 84, and was buried in Claiborne, Louisiana, United States.