When Mary Elizabeth Tatum was born on 13 January 1867, in Stamps, Lafayette, Arkansas, United States, her father, Stephen Wright Tatom, was 38 and her mother, Susannah F Guinn, was 29. She married Benjamin Everette Graves on 29 December 1887, in Lafayette, Arkansas, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 daughters. She lived in Hadley Township, Columbia, Arkansas, United States in 1880 and Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States in 1900. She died on 29 August 1921, in Lucedale, George, Mississippi, United States, at the age of 54.