David Andrews was born in Rome, Georgia. He attended West Georgia College from 1939 to 1940 on the insistence of his mother. Andrews was part of the National Youth Administration (NYA), a student aid program instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As part of this program, he worked in the Dining Hall as a dishwasher and received ten cents an hour.

After attending West Georgia for a year, Andrews returned back to Rome where he worked at a drive-in until he got hired as an apprentice by Westinghouse Electric Company, located in Pittsburgh, in 1940. As an apprentice, he worked making ship controls for the U. S. Navy and attended electrical engineering school which he never finished. While in this position Andrews received various deferments from the World War II draft, but once he transferred into another department in 1944 he became drafted. During the war, Andrews trained in Fire Control in the Navy. He was placed on the U.S.S. Wyoming where he worked as a Radio Operator until 1946.

Following his wartime service, Andrews went back to work at Westinghouse where he stayed until he was laid off in 1953. He then moved to Miami where he got a job with Eastern Airlines as a mechanic. Andrews took an early retirement in 1958.