Holmes was born John Curtis Estes on August 8, 1944, in the small rural town of Ashville, Ohio, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Columbus. He was the youngest of four children born to 26-year-old Mary June (Barton) Holmes, but the father's name, Carl Estes, a railroad worker, is left blank on his birth certificate. Mary Barton had married Edgar Harvey Holmes, who was the father of her three older children - Dale, Edward and Anne. She and Holmes were married and divorced three times, as is documented by wedding certificates dated April 13, 1936, August 13, 1945, and September 12, 1947. At the time of their first marriage in 1936, Edgar Harvey Holmes was 35 years old and divorced, while Mary Barton was 17. After divorcing for the third and final time, Edgar and Mary each married one more time.