When Rufus Parks Sims was born on 15 April 1909, in Georgia, United States, his father, James Leland Sims, was 23 and his mother, Margaret Isabella Braswell, was 28. He had at least 1 daughter with Ruth Rae Edwards. He died on 23 October 1948, in his hometown, at the age of 39, and was buried in Bethlehem, Barrow, Georgia, United States.