Andrew Joyner, Sr., was born August 15, 1856, in Pitt County, North Carolina. Joyner was for a good portion of his life a newspaperman and had worked with the Associated Press, New York Times, Atlanta Constitution, Raleigh News and Observer, Greensboro Daily News and Record, Greenville Reflector, and the Winston-Salem Sentinel. In 1913, he accepted a clerk position in Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, which job he held until 1915. He died on March 25, 1951, in Edgecombe County, North Carolina.