Oscar Eugene Lyda was born on October 13, 1894, in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Lyda was a laborer for the Clinchfield Manufacturing Company in Marion, North Carolina, when he registered for the draft (World War I) in June 1917. He was subsequently inducted into the service in July 1918 and served as unassigned infantry at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, until honorably discharged in October 1919. Lyda died in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on February 8, 1965.