William Yarborough Bickett was born on August 30, 1899, in Franklin County, North Carolina. The son of Gov. Thomas W. Bickett, Bickett served as his father's executive secretary in 1920, the last year of his father's administration. A lawyer by training, he was a superior court judge from 1954 to 1973. He died in Raleigh (Wake County) on October 26, 1974.