Background
Meacham was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of Eunice Jean (née Ellis) and Cowan White Kirby Meacham, an attorney.
Meacham was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of Eunice Jean (née Ellis) and Cowan White Kirby Meacham, an attorney.
He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with an Bachelor of Arts in 1935 and Vanderbilt University with an Bachelor of Laws in 1937.
Meacham was an attorney in Chattanooga from 1937 to 1972, when he became a judge in the Chattanooga Municipal Court. A grandson, Jon Meacham, is the editor of Newsweek and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian.