Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Christenberry attended New York University and was in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1918 during World War I.

He was an assistant attorney of the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans from 1933 to 1935.

He was a deputy commissioner on the Louisiana Debt Moratorium Commission in 1935, and from 1935 to 1937 was an assistant district attorney of Orleans Parish.

[1] Christenberry was nominated by President Harry S. Truman on July 11, 1947, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana vacated by Judge Adrian Joseph Caillouet.

His service terminated on October 5, 1975, due to his death in Kentwood, Louisiana.