At the age of five, he was adopted by a German family named Oswald and spent most of the rest of his childhood living and working on their farm.

James attended both local German and English language schools in Lawrence through eighth grade and reportedly made friends easily.

At about the age of eighteen, he got a job on a dairy farm where he reportedly milked 50 cows twice a day and developed the large forearms he kept for the rest of his life.

He was later assigned as a radio instructor in San Diego and commanded the compass station at Point Reyes in Northern California.

Through friends he learned Harry Lyon was thinking of going with Charles Kingsford Smith on a planned long-distance flight from California, across the Pacific Ocean.

Returning to California, Warner and Lyon each were given a 4 oz gold commemorative medal along with $10,000 from the citizens of Oakland and William Randolph Hearst.

He also experimented with building an electronic organ and was hired by Hearst to install a sound system at San Simeon in Northern California.

Later during the Great Depression of the 1930s Warner moved to Fresno and worked for a water softener business, traveling in California’s Central Valley.