Louis Freund, painter, illustrator, and educator, was born on September 16, 1905, in Clinton, Missouri. He attended the University of Missouri from 1923 to 1925 and the St. Louis School of Fine Arts from 1925 to 1929. During the 1930s commissions granted by the Works Progress Administration allowed him to travel throughout rural Ozark areas in Arkansas and Missouri, painting murals for public buildings and scenes of American life. His work includes portraiture, landscapes, murals, genre scenes, protest paintings, Latin American culture paintings, and religious paintings.

Elsa Bates Freund, jewelry-maker, watercolorist, craftsperson, and educator, was born on January 12, 1912, in Mincy, Missouri. In 1929, she graduated from high school in Branson, Missouri, and taught school for one year before attending the Kansas City Art Institute from 1930 to 1932. In 1936, she met Louis Freund whom she married in 1939 in Eureka Springs, Carroll County, Arkansas. Elsie worked extensively with watercolor, textiles, jewelry and ceramics, developing a technique called "Elsaramics" of fused glass on ceramic forms in an enameling kiln. Louis died December 22, 1999 at 94 years old and Elsie not soon after, June 24, 2001 at 89 years old.