Early Life
Bottomley was born on April 23, 1900, to Elizabeth (nee Carter) and John Bottomley in Oglesby, Illinois. Bottomley enrolled in Nokomis High School in Nokomis, Illinois, but dropped out when he was 16 years old in order to help support his family financially. He worked as a coal miner, truck driver, grocery clerk, and railroad clerk. His younger brother, Ralph, died in a mining accident in 1920.
Bottomley also played semi-professional baseball for several local teams to make additional money, earning $5 a game ($77 in current dollar terms). A police officer who knew Branch Rickey, the general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, saw Bottomley play, and recommended Bottomley to Rickey.
Read more about this topic: Jim Bottomley
Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)