Otis Blake was a US veteran of the Great War. He had a permanent part in his hair from where a bullet had creased the top of his head. After the War, Blake returned to work in a glass plant where he made plate glass. He met and married Susan Martin in the 1920s. They had one child, a boy they named Peter. After the 1929 stock market crash, Blake managed to hold onto his job in a glass plant. He and Sue helped out her brother and then her father after the two lost their jobs in the steel mills.