Rogers Edward Harrell was born in Darlington County, South Carolina, a son of Dr. S.D. Harrell and Rosa Lee Huggins, who died while he was a boy. Graduating from high school in Clinton, he received his A.B. degree from Wofford College, his LL.B. from George Washington University and LL.M. from Georgetown University. While in law school, he worked at the U.S. Patent and Copyright Office, and then moved to Kingstree in 1934 to practice law. He served in the European and Pacific Theatres in World War II, enlisting in the Army in 1942 as a private and being discharged four years later as a Captain.
He married Marguerite Craven in 1946, and they reared four children.
He was an outstanding lawyer, farmer, and political and civic leader in Williamsburg County for forty-four years. He was attorney for the town of Kingstree, a Director of Palmetto National Farm Loan Association, President of the Kingstree Chamber of Commerce, Mayor of Kingstree, President of Kingstree Rotary Club, Chairman of Williamsburg County School Board and a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, President of the Williamsburg County Bar Association, and a member of the Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline. He was active in Kingstree United Methodist Church where he taught the Men’s Class for over twenty-five years.