Milton Reed Quinerly was born on September 10, 1893, in Pitt County, North Carolina. Quinerly was a farmer in Grifton, North Carolina, when he registered for the draft (World War I) in June 1917. He was subsequently inducted into the service in March 1918 and served with the 320th Ambulance Company of the 305th Sanitary Train. He was honorably discharged in June 1919 after serving a year deployed overseas. Quinerly died in Los Angeles, California, on January 23, 1985.