When Merle William Howard was born on 14 January 1912, in Logan, Harrison, Iowa, United States, his father, William Samuel Howard, was 43 and his mother, Nina Ruth Dinsmore, was 36. He married Florence Faye Feldkamp on 13 August 1934, in Minnehaha, South Dakota, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 2 daughters. He lived in Osceola, Iowa, United States in 1935 and Florida Township, Yellow Medicine, Minnesota, United States in 1940. He died on 13 September 1983, in Sibley, Osceola, Iowa, United States, at the age of 71, and was buried in Sibley, Osceola, Iowa, United States.