 Meade, born in Paintsville, Kentucky, attended high school at the Kentucky Military Institute in Lyndon before attending Western State Teachers College in Bowling Green from 1930 to 1933.After leaving Western, he engaged in the banking business from 1933 to 1936.Meade graduated from University of Louisville School of Law in 1939 and was admitted to the bar the same year; opening a law practice in Paintsville.