When Irene Huntington Lewis was born on 26 October 1908, in Blounts Creek, Beaufort, North Carolina, United States, her father, Jesse Robert Lewis, was 30 and her mother, Sudie Brown Stilley, was 28. She lived in Chocowinity, Beaufort, North Carolina, United States for about 10 years and Chapel Hill, Orange, North Carolina, United States in 1966. She died on 12 May 1966, in Durham, Durham, North Carolina, United States, at the age of 57, and was buried in Durham, North Carolina, United States.