His father, Fred "Freddie" Sanford (1897-1944), was from Hickman, Kentucky, served during World War I in the 823rd company of U.S. Army U.S. Transportation Corps and worked as an electrician and an auto mechanic, but left his family sometime after 1930. He was raised by his half-Seminole mother, Mary Hughes (1903-1993) from Ellisville, Mississippi,