 A fourth-generation Macon lawyer, Anderson began private practice in his hometown in 1961.He fulfilled his military obligation as a lieutenant in the United States Army from 1961 until 1963, stationed on a Nike Site in Denbigh, Virginia, being discharged as a Captain in the reserves in 1965.Anderson had by then returned to private legal practice in Macon, where he worked from 1963 until 1979.