When John Perkins Sr. was born on 17 August 1887, in Vicksburg, Warren, Mississippi, United States, his father, Ben P Perkins, was 22 and his mother, Francis Jefferson, was 17. He married Rosa Anna Price McCoy on 18 May 1912, in Warren, Mississippi, United States. They were the parents of at least 8 sons and 4 daughters. He lived in Beat 5, Bolivar, Mississippi, United States in 1920 and Beat 5, Warren, Mississippi, United States for about 10 years. He died in 1958, in Vicksburg, Warren, Mississippi, United States, at the age of 71.