 He was a law graduate of Washington University in St. Louis in 1917 and World War I veteran.In 1940 he was appointed by mayor Joe Gage to be city counsel and prosecuted several city employees in the fall of the Thomas Pendergast machine.Kemp was elected to a two-year term in 1946, re-elected to a three-year term in 1949 and then re-elected to a four-year term in 1952.