Roy was born Leonard Slye, the son of Mattie (née Womack) and Andrew "Andy" Slye in Cincinnati, Ohio. The family lived in a tenement on 2nd Street, where Riverfront Stadium would later be constructed (Rogers later joked that he was born at second base). Dissatisfied with his job and city life, Andy and his brother Will built a 12-by-50-foot (3.7 m × 15.2 m) houseboat from salvage lumber, and in July 1912 the Slye family traveled up the Ohio River towards Portsmouth. Desiring a more stable existence in Portsmouth, they purchased land on which to build a house, but the Great Flood of 1913 allowed them to move the houseboat to their property and continue living in it on dry land.\n', '

In 1919, the Slye family purchased a farm in Duck Run, near Lucasville, Ohio, about 12 miles (19 km) north of Portsmouth, and built a six-room house. Andy Slye soon realized that the farm alone would not provide sufficient income for his family, so he took a job at a Portsmouth shoe factory, living in Portsmouth during the week and returning home on weekends, bearing gifts following paydays. A notable gift was a horse on which young Len Slye learned the basics of horsemanship. Living on the farm with no radio, the family made their own entertainment. On Saturday nights, they often invited neighbors over for square dances, during which Len would sing, play mandolin, and call the square dances. He also learned to yodel during this time, and his mother and he would use different yodels to communicate with each other across distances on the farm.\n', '

Len attended high school in McDermott, Ohio, but after he completed his second year there, his family returned to Cincinnati, where his father worked at another shoe factory. Realizing that his family needed his financial help, Len quit school and joined his father at the factory. He tried to attend night school, but after being ridiculed for falling asleep in class, he quit school and never returned.\n', '

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