John Wallace Winborne was born on July 12, 1884, in Chowan County, North Carolina. Winborne was an attorney in Marion who served as the chairman of the McDowell County Council of Defense, chairman of the Marion Chapter of the Red Cross, McDowell County Food Administrator, and as a member of the McDowell County Exemption Board during World War I. He died in Marion (McDowell County) on July 9, 1966.