Hannibal Roscoe Vannoy was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, on April 9, 1884. Vannoy was the secretary and treasurer for the Coca-Cola bottling plant in North Wilkesboro from 1909 to 1917, when he moved to Durham where he worked as an agent for Durham Life Insurance. By 1930, he settled in West Jefferson (Ashe County), where he owned a Dr. Pepper bottling plant. He died in West Jefferson on September 3, 1974.