Catherine Deaton was born on July 21, 1848, in North Carolina to William Deaton and Flora Bethune. Her father was a farmer who owned $275 of personal property by 1860. She grew up and attended school in Moore County, North Carolina. The family moved to Rocky Springs, North Carolina, in the 1860s. She married Laughlin McLeod around 1878, and they had at least four children: Lula, born around 1879; Herbert, born around 1885; Margaret, born around 1888; and Sarah, born around 1891. They lived in McNeills, North Carolina, and her husband worked in the turpentine industry. Her husband died in 1915, and she continued in live in McNeills with her adult children. She died near Carthage, North Carolina, on November 6, 1935.