Jim Frank Martin, Jr. was born on January 18, 1947 in rural Geneva County northwest of Hartford, Alabama. He was born in a wooden frame farmhouse built in 1890 on a farm that belonged to his great-grandmother, Mary Ellafare Jones Barnes and her son, Recer Lee Barnes. He attended Oak Grove Elementary and junior high in rural Geneva County, Alabama and graduated from Geneva County High School in 1965. He received his B.S. in Business Administration and a B.A. in English and History. At the University of Alabama he received his M.A. degree in English and did his internship in the English classrooms for two years.

During his career, Mr. Martin taught English. He also took photographs as a correspondent/journalist for two days a week for newspapers in Houston, Geneva, and Coffee Counties in Southeast Alabama. He lived in New Orleans for 14 years until Hurricane Katrina struck. Mr. Martin currently lives in Scott, Louisiana where he pursues ancestry research, concentrating on persons whose ancestors fought, died, and/or survived the War of Northern Aggression.