[1][3][4] James Keith Sonnier was born July 31, 1941, in Mamou, Louisiana.
His father was a hardware store owner, Joseph Sonnier, and his mother was a florist and singer, Mae Ledoux.
[1] After graduation from Rutgers, he moved to New York City with Jackie Winsor and some of his former classmates.
[1] Sonnier died in Southampton, NY on July 18, 2020, of MDS (Myelodysplastic syndrome) and complications from it at the age of 78.
[2] In 1966, he married the sculptor Jackie Winsor, who at the time was a fellow art student from Rutgers University.