[4] He was the son of Eleanor Painter (née Sloan) (1903–1985) and Loudon Snowden Wainwright (1898–1942).
[15] When Life resumed publication as a monthly in 1978, he joined its staff as an editor, and continued to contribute to its pages after retiring from that position in 1985.
[4] After his death, the magazine published a retrospective in the February 1989 issue with excerpts from some of the two hundred columns he had written for it over the years.
[17] At the time of their wedding, Martha was a Private first class with the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve.
[4] He had a long time relationship with Martha Fay, with whom he had one daughter:[13][4] After two years of illness, Wainwright died of colon cancer in his home in Manhattan at age 63.