When Robert McGehee Atchley was born on 22 January 1902, in Manchester Township, Dallas, Arkansas, United States, his father, Robert McKendree Atchley, was 31 and his mother, Valentine Meriwether McGehee, was 25. He married Nettie Clyde Williams on 10 August 1929, in Saline, Arkansas, United States. He lived in Fenter Township, Hot Spring, Arkansas, United States in 1940 and Arkansas, United States in 1954. He died on 25 November 1979, in Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas, United States, at the age of 77, and was buried in Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas, United States.