Born in Winona, Shannon County, he trained to be a store manager of a JCPenney store like his father James, but deicded instead on the ministry. He preached his first sermon in 1932, was licensed and then ordained to the ministry by the First Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma. He entered William Jewell College, but the Depression forced him to suspend his college education. There he met and married Lena "Sue" Lusk from Highland, Kansas, and their marriage lasted until her death at 69 years. Both returned to William Jewell in 1935 and graduated in 1936, after which he studied at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, graduating in May 1939, with the Master of Theology. He served in the Navy as a chaplain during World War II. Assigned to the Pacific Theater, he was part of the New Georgia Invasion in June 1943. He served as Senior Chaplain at the Bunker Hill Naval Air Station near Kokomo, Indiana, and then was also on an aircraft carrier for the Okinawa campaign. Lemons rose to the rank of Lt. Commander. Returning to civilian life in 1946, he pastored the First Baptist Church of Lebanon, Illinois, and becoming, on January 1, 1950, the Area Minister for Southern Illinois for the Baptist State Convention. In 1953, he became Executive Director of Circulation for the American Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia. In 1968, he returned to Missouri to be Executive Minister for Missouri and Southwestern Illinois. Depite retirement, he served as Area Minister for Central Kansas.