Born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Sims attended the public schools. He graduated from Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1941. After graduation, he was editor of the Times and Democrat, the daily newspaper of Orangeburg from 1941 to 1942.
After the war, he graduated from the law school of the University of South Carolina in 1947 and was a lawyer in private practice.
Political career
He served as member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1947 to 1948. He then defeated incumbent John J. Riley for the Democratic nomination to Congress from the Second District. He was elected to the Eighty-first Congress. However, he lost the Democratic nomination to Riley in 1950, who went on to regain the Congressional seat.
Later life
Sims reentered the United States Army in 1951, and then resumed the practice of law from 1951 to 1965. He served as president of the Management and Investment Corporation from 1965 to 1983.
He died on July 9, 2004, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and is interred in Memorial Park Cemetery in Orangeburg.