Charles was born "on the corner of Kent and Lee Street," in Alexandria, Louisiana. His father, Joe, was a native of Sicily and worked as a baker's helper. His mother, Mary Maranto Liberto, was also a Sicilian. The family moved to Shreveport when Charles was a small child. Joe recalls his mother baking bread in a backyard oven, and taking in washing, making $1.25 all day. Joe quit school in the seventh grade to help his parents. He delivered bread, newspapers, and telegrams. He loved to dance, and took to the floors of clubs and at wedding parties. Charles enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Center in September of 1942. After only four weeks of boot camp he shipped out to Pearl Harbor where he spent three years as one of "twelve to fifteen" bakers. Alternating in two shifts (one day on, one day off) he worked from "one, two, three in the morning," Charles recalls. He often fed 7,000 servicemen in a day. He left Pearl Harbor for the United States in October of 1945 aboard the USS Caisson Bay, and was discharged in New Orleans. Back in Shreveport he worked for Peacock Surgical, and married Hazel Elizabeth Brown on February 25, 1950. They had two children and five grandchildren.