James settled in Gainesville, Ga. He was a radiologist there from 1968 to 1997, and was chief of the department at Northeast Georgia Medical Center. He graduated from medical school at the University of Tennessee and was in general practice in Caruthersville, Mo., for five years and then in residence at Methodist Hospital in Memphis, before settling in Gainesville. He served in the Army during WWII and was also a chemist for Union Carbide and Illinois Central Railroad in his youth.