==Family life==
Two days after Dooley's reelection as sheriff in 1983, he moved out of the home that he had shared with his first wife, Bobbie Katherine Dooley (born 1932), to whom he was married for thirty-one years. Each claimed in a bitter divorce allegations of cruel treatment "which rendered their living together insupportable." Mrs. Dooley claimed that her husband was involved in an affair with his secretary amid the reelection campaign.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/19851042478So2d564_1928|title=Bobbie Katherine DOOLEY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Vol S. DOOLEY, Jr., Defendant-Appellee., |date=October 30, 1985|work=leagle.com|accessdate=July 20, 2020}}</ref> Dooley subsequently remarried; his widow is Ruth Lilley Brown Dooley (born 1936-2020), originally from Pleasant Hill in Sabine Parish and one of five children of James Oda Lilley (1908-1994) and the former Lucille Jewel Greer (1909-1988).
Dooley has four children from his first marriage, Patricia "Patsy" D. Davidson Netherland (born 1954), Steven Norris "Steve" Dooley (born 1955) and wife Teresa Ford Dooley, and James Michael "Mike" Dooley (born 1957) and wife Donna Carter Dooley, and Vol "Bubba" Dooley, III (1965-2001), who was murdered by Dooley's estranged daughter-in-law.<ref name=volsr.obit/> He acquired three stepsons from his second marriage: Autry Brown, Dennis Brown, and Ricky Brown.<ref name=shrtimes/>