Frank J. Vavra was born in St. Paul, Nebraska in 1892. When he was seven, his parents moved with their three boys and two daughters to Cheyenne, Wyoming. The wild and rowdy atmosphere of this pioneer town continued to influence Vavra’s paintings long after he left there. Franks’ parents were fond of the arts and encouraged their son’s interest in painting. They were from Prague, Czechoslovakia where Frank’s maternal grandfather had been a landscape gardener at one of the castles in Prague.