Jimmy Tootle was born to Harold and Lillie Cox Tootle in 1934 in Tattnall County in the midst of the Great Depression. He and his brothers: Theo, Carroll, Ray, and Marcus; and sisters: Janice, Betty, and Sue graduated from Reidsville High School where they were good students and athletes. They all came to age working in tobacco and cotton fields in those days when wages were about a dollar a day in the 1930s to 60 cents per hour in the mid-1960s.