Vernon was born Walter Lester Pope Knyvette, in British India, as the son of an English officer in the army.
All six of these figures (the seventh is not among the group) are on display at the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.
As time passed, however, Vernon began to lose his eyesight, and, according to correspondence, he eventually went blind on Christmas morning, 25 December 1920, in the middle of a performance at the Orpheum Theater in Spokane, Washington.
Vernon would follow the thread to the bench, and once in the proper place, knowing where each control was, he was able to perform as though he could in fact see.
Vernon died on 17 May 1937, when he was struck by a speeding taxi cab in San Francisco, California.