 After serving in the Navy during World War I he attended Centre College in nearby Danville, Kentucky, but did not graduate, leaving after two years in 1921 to work in his family's laundry business, becoming vice president of it by 1930.He was elected to the Board of Aldermen in 1933 as a Democrat, and mayor in 1953.His administration is remembered for the Mallon Plan, a failed attempt to annex large portions of Jefferson County, which were beginning to develop quickly as suburbs of Louisville.