When James Wallace Crenshaw was born on 9 November 1895, in Mount Pleasant, Marshall, Mississippi, United States, his father, James Ford Crenshaw, was 23 and his mother, Roxie A. Polk, was 20. He married Eleanor Elma Boone on 23 August 1919, in Shelby, Tennessee, United States. He lived in Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee, United States in 1920 and San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, United States in 1930. He registered for military service in 1919. He died on 7 February 1978, in Alamo Heights, Bexar, Texas, United States, at the age of 82, and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery South, Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee, United States.