Combs worked for the highway department for three years in order to earn enough money to attend the University of Kentucky College of Law in Lexington.[6] While at the university, he was managing editor of the Kentucky Law Journal.[6] In 1937, he graduated second in his class, earning a Bachelor of Laws degree and qualifying for the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for the top ten percent of graduating law students.[6][9] He was admitted to the bar, and returned to Manchester to begin practicing law.[10] It was also in 1937 that Combs married Mabel Hall, with whom he had two children, Lois Ann Combs and Thomas "Tommy" George Combs.[11]