When John Pinkney McSwain was born on July 2, 1894, in Puryear, Tennessee, his father, William, was 40 and his mother, Sarah, was 30. He had two children with Mary Edna WILLIS and two children with Robbie Lee Pettit. He died on October 6, 1975, in Abilene, Texas, at the age of 81, and was buried there.