Walter was reported to have been hurt in a hunting accident from which he lost an arm and susposedly an eye.
He was the first peron in the Harrell family to learn photography from a Mr. Sam Corbet of Dayton OH.
In an interview in the 1990s, Ben Pierce said that Walter lost his eye in a cateract operation.

On Jan 14, 1952 William reported that he was living in Winston Salm NC. at 114 1/2 N. 4th Street. William also mentions his father and mother (Javan & Ann Marina Mitchell Harrell) in the same document. He also mentions that he is self employed at that time, and he was 69 years old. For some reason, he signed his name on the report as Walter F. Harrell.

In the 1900 cencus, Walter claimed to have be born in 1883 and was currently a farm laborer. He is not listed in the 1910 Va. Soundex.

Charles Thomas Harrell has obtained a photocopy of Walter's Social Security application form.

According to the Social Security death index, he died in September, 1969, in Winston Salem, NC