Carson Brewer was born to Charles Henry Charlie and Mary Eliza (Winkler) Brewer on February 2, 1920, in Tennessee. He attended Maryville College from 1939 to 1941 and the University of Tennessee from 1945 to 1946, but illness interrupted his studies and he never graduated. Brewer served in the U.S. Army during World War II and began working for the Knoxville News-Sentinel after the war ended. He married journalist Alberta Trulock (1917-2007) in 1949 and the couple had one son, Carson Trulock Kit Brewer.

Brewer began writing a weekly column (which later appeared three times a week) in the 1950s. He was known as a tenacious reporter and a talented writer, bringing Appalachian culture and the beauty of the Smoky Mountains to life for his readers. Brewer formally retired from the Sentinel in 1985 but continued submitting occasional pieces until his death in 2003.

Alberta Trulock Brewer was the original manager of the United Press bureau in Knoxville in 1948. She was also a bureau writer and manager in Jacksonville and Nashville.