Conrad Alexander McGlamery was born in Stanton (Wilkes County), North Carolina, on February 19, 1890. McGlamery was working as a travelling salesman for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in June 1918 during World War I. He served overseas from September 1918 through June 1919, when he received his honorable discharge after obtaining the rank of sergeant. After the war, McGlamery moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he worked as a salesman for a soap company. In 1952, he opened a motel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he died on September 29, 1943.