 He was the valedictorian of his senior class at Marshall High School in 1936, and two years later he earned an associate's degree from Mars Hill College, then a junior college located in his native Madison County (in 1988, Mars Hill College would award him an honorary doctorate degree).During the Second World War, Ramsey served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater of the war.After the war, Ramsey was elected to serve on the town board of aldermen for Marshall, North Carolina.