When Shelby Glen Addington was born on 2 August 1920, in Norton, Virginia, United States, his father, Isaac Berlin Addington, was 29 and his mother, Artie Vera Sturgill, was 19. He married Audrey Bernice Brummett on 8 March 1943, in Wise, Wise, Virginia, United States. He died on 31 October 1998, in Jefferson City, Jefferson, Tennessee, United States, at the age of 78.