James Peter Lewis was born on 22 September 1924 in Carbondale, Illinois, to William B. and Ethel A. (Williams) Lewis, both of whom were 1911 graduates of Lincoln University. He had two older siblings: William “Benton” Lewis and Mabel Bradshaw. The family moved to Alton when Lewis was eight years old. He graduated from the Lovejoy School in 1939 and from Alton Senior High School in 1943. Lewis served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, assigned to beach landing crafts as a motorman, most notably in the Philippines and Okinawa. After his naval service, he attended Tuskegee University and graduated in 1951 with a degree in automotive engineering. While at Tuskegee, Lewis met Dorothy Arnold. The couple married on 12 June 1951, after Lewis’s graduation, and they relocated to Alton, Illinois. The couple celebrated 66 years of marriage before Lewis’s death on 8 May 2018.

Lewis obtained work at Trans World Airlines (TWA) in 1959 cleaning planes on the midnight shift. Determined to achieve his life-long dream of working on airplanes, Lewis enrolled in Parks Air College in Cahokia, Illinois. In 1961, he was the first African American to graduate from the institution. Lewis continued to work at TWA for the next 31 years as an airplane mechanic. He worked on the propeller-driven Lockheed Constellation and then transitioned to jets like the Boeing 707, 747, and L1011. According to Mrs. Lewis, he was one of the first African Americans aircraft mechanics to work for the airline. Because of his expertise with the Boeing L1011, TWA subcontracted Lewis to Saudi Arabia Airlines (Saudia) to maintain and repair their L-1011 aircraft. As a result, the family relocated to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 1975 for over two years. Lewis was then assigned to Karachi, Pakistan, for an additional two years. The Lewis family returned to the St. Louis area in 1980.

Dorothy Arnold was born on 20 April 1929 in New Orleans to Wilbert and Maude Arnold. After her marriage in 1951, Dorothy pursued a career in nursing. She worked many years at St. Mary’s Hospital (Clayton, Mo.) beginning in 1959 and later in private duty nursing; she retired in 1991. Dorothy and James had four children: Martha Drohobyczer, Michael James Lewis ( -1972), Kathy Lewis-Everage, and Arnold James Lewis.