When Herman Katz was born on October 20, 1884, in Wislica, Swietokrzyskie, Poland, his father, Yisroel, was 20 and his mother, Blima, was 17. He had two sons and five daughters with Sarah Kleiner. He then married Sheva Katz on December 31, 1939, in Brooklyn, New York. He died on September 16, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 70, and was buried there.