During the first half of the twentieth century, Boy Roger grew up in an all-black sharecropping community in Rural South Carolina. From the start, Boy Roger was handed what appeared to be a raw deal and before the age ten, he filled the shoes of a full grown man with the weight of his Mother and siblings on his shoulders. But through the hard years of toils and tribulations, mixed in with a few periods of exhilarations; Boy Rogers and his family thrived, and he became the strapping, handsome young man Roger Leaks. On September 30, 1939, Roger Leaks and Phebbie Johnson became husband and wife. They immediately became a smooth, effective, cooperative couple.