When Melvin French was born on 7 June 1912, in Elk Point, Union, South Dakota, United States, his father, Robert French, was 26 and his mother, Ethel Ardell Harkness, was 23. He lived in Union, South Dakota, United States in 1930 and Benson, Cochise, Arizona, United States in 1999. He died on 9 December 1999, in Cochise, Arizona, United States, at the age of 87.