Sarah Cobb Johnson was born in Selma, Alabama, February 7, 1865,[1] but was reared in Atlanta, Georgia.

[2] Her mother was Mary Willis (nee Cobb) Erwin Johnson,[2] of Athens, Georgia.

[4] During her residence in Atlanta, she was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR),[6] and served as vice-president general in 1890.

She was a member of the Board of Directors and chair of ways and means of the woman's department of the Cotton States and International Exposition (Atlanta, 1895).

She also served as chair of the Roanoke Committee of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Virginia.

[7] She wrote in African-American and "cracker" dialects, reproducing the wit and wisdom of the types which she portrayed.

[4] On October 30, 1903, she married Lucian Howard Cocke (1858–1927), of "Cockspur", Orchard Hill, Roanoke, Virginia.