 His wife was Annis Bradshaw Pearson.They had two daughters, Iola Pearson Byers and Annette Pearson Cotton, and one son, Edward W. Pearson Jr. 

Pearson's legacy has been commemorated in Asheville with a community identification sign in 2008 as well as larger-than-life mural painted on the back of Burton Street Community Center in 2014 for the 100th anniversary celebration of the agricultural fair that Pearson first organized in 1914.The fair was revived and renamed the Burton Street Agricultural Fair in 2012.