When John Henry Fussell Jr. was born on 25 July 1915, in Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia, United States, his father, John Henry Fussell Sr., was 20 and his mother, Jeannette Victoria Baggett, was 19. He married Helen Wilburn Nichols on 7 June 1941, in New Hanover, North Carolina, United States. He lived in Wilmington, New Hanover, North Carolina, United States in 1940. He died on 10 March 1992, in Sparta, Alleghany, North Carolina, United States, at the age of 76, and was buried in Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington, New Hanover, North Carolina, United States.