When Homer Gaines Bailey was born on May 22, 1905, in Stewart, Tennessee, his father, John, was 31 and his mother, Minnie, was 18. He married Robbie Lee Pettit on May 30, 1924, in his hometown. They had five children during their marriage. He died as a young father on April 19, 1931, in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 25, and was buried in Stewart, Tennessee.