Native Uriah, Alabama, moved to Pensacola around 1920.  He was the youngest child of Mary V. Bryan and an absentee father, James Wesley Bryan.  Attended college at LSU, graduating with an accounting degree.  Was a sergeant in the Middle East during World War II.  Worked as an accountant for Estes, which was a contractor that sold pulp wood to St. Regis Paper Mill.  He liked to walk at the beach as a pasttime.  He married Elma Pate in 1947 and had one son, Gary.  They divorced after about 7 years.  He was mason and member of the Scottish Rite.