Zollicoffer Wiley Whitehead was born on April 15, 1862, in Kenansville, North Carolina. Whitehead was a journalist and editor. During the course of his career, he wrote for the Greensboro Patriot, Fayetteville Observer, Southern Lumber Journal, and the Carolina Fruit and Truckers' Journal. He died in Wilmington, North Carolina on July 1, 1923.