Vernon White was born on 2 October 1915 to William Grant and Martha Ellen (Reed) White near White Mills, Kentucky, where his family had lived since the early nineteenth century. The children were educated at the one-room Lee School in Hardin County and then went to Lynnvale High School. The family was literate, subscribing to the county newspaper and several popular magazines of the day; they also played word games and held academic competitions in the home. They attended the White Mills Baptist Church.

Vernon White graduated from Lynnvale High School in 1935 and continued to help his family at the farm. In 1941 he participated in classes in woodworking offered by the National Defense Training program, and in 1943 he was inducted into the U. S. Army Air Corps attending through the Aircraft Armament School. While in the military, he visited Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. He was injured while in service and received his honorable discharge in 1944. His military service allowed him to go to college on the GI Bill. He enrolled in the University of Louisville in 1947 and received his Bachelor of Science degree in sociology with a minor in psychology in 1951. He then enrolled at the University of Tennessee and completed his Masters degree in Sociology in 1953. It was here that he was active in the Baptist Student Union and photographed many of their activities. White married Dorothy Bell Moore in 1953 and they had two children, Carolyn Marie (White) Bell and Charles Vernon White.

Between 1953 and 1966, White worked at various teaching institutions, including Lincoln Memorial University (Sociology Department Head, 1953-1954), Rogersville High School (social studies teacher, 1954), the University of Tennessee at Martin (1955-1958), Furman University (1958-1960), and Piedmont College (1961-1966). During these years he completed over seventy additional hours of graduate work at the University of Georgia. In 1966 he accepted a faculty position at Western Kentucky University, where he remained until his retirement in 1980. During his career, he was a member of both the American Sociological Association and the Southern Sociological Association. In the later part of his career, he was an active member of the Kentucky Archaeological Association, serving as Treasurer from 1971 to 1977 and being elected to the Board of Directors for a three year term in 1978.

White’s research interests varied widely. From 1972 to 1977 researched hominy holes in Kentucky. A great deal of this research consisted of fieldwork in which he located and then documented these sites in the south central Kentucky area. This research resulted in the publication of a report titled "An Archaeological Survey and Study of Hominy Holes in Kentucky," which was published by the Kentucky Archaeological Association (Bulletin 14 & 15, April 1980). After his retirement, he continued his research on Kentucky’s covered bridges. This work resulted in what is perhaps his best known publication, Covered Bridges: Focus on Kentucky (Kentucky Imprints, 1985). White was interested both in the physical and aesthetic attributes of covered bridges. His last major publication was Grave Covers: Our Cultural Heritage (Kentucky Imprints, 2005) and it examines the various types of grave covers found in Kentucky and other nearby states.

Vernon White passed away on 2008 December 1 at his home in Bowling Green, Kentucky.