On October 12, 1935, William Raspberry was born in Okolona, Mississippi. Raspberry has two sisters and one brother. His parents urged him to read books when he was younger. His mother, Willie May Tucker Raspberry, was an English teacher, and his father, James Lee Raspberry, taught shop classes. Throughout his life Raspberry learned everything he could from his parents, and his wealth of knowledge would prove to be a success later in life. On November 12, 1966, Raspberry married Sondra Patricia Dodson. William Raspberry is still married and has a son and two daughters of his own.

  William Raspberry took a different approach to choosing journalism as a career. He began writing for his college newspaper the Indianapolis Recorder. Raspberry started as reporter and worked up to the Managing Editor position in his four years at the Recorder. However, in 1960 Raspberry was drafted into the army. During his service Raspberry work as a public information officer in Washington, D.C. After the war Raspberry began work as a teletypist for the Washington Post. After a year of working at the Washington Post, Raspberry moved up to a copy editor. As a copy editor William Raspberry spent most of his time reading other people’s works, which allowed him to perfect his own writing. Finally in 1966 Raspberry was offered the opportunity to write the obituaries. Writing the obituaries would turn out to be a start to a very successful career.

Over the next few years William Raspberry would write numerous articles and work a little as a television commentator. In 1965 he received Journalist of the Year from the Capitol Press Club. Raspberry has served many colleges, boards, and clubs throughout his life. From teaching to serving the executive board, William Raspberry took his own style of writing and created a career, which led to a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1994. Today Raspberry lectures to classes and continues to write for newspaper and magazines.