Richard Harrison Dees was born on August 21, 1857, in Neshoba County, Mississippi, to Thomas and Delia Ann Dees. His father was a farmer who owned $50 of real estate. He grew up in Neshoba County, Mississippi, and his father died in the early 1860s. By 1870, he was working as a farm laborer. He eventually moved to Senatobia, Mississippi, and then to Memphis, Tennessee, and he earned a living as a policeman. He retired around 1931, and he moved to the Memphis Sunshine Home for Aged Men the following year. He died of “myocardial disease” in Memphis on January 14, 1940.