Early Life and Artistic Beginnings Frank Virgil Dudley was born November 14, 1868, in Delavan, Wisconsin—the eldest of three brothers—to Deaf parents, James A. Dudley and Flora Virgil Dudley. His father, James A., was born in Ira, Cuyuga County, New York in 1838 and migrated west with his family to settle on a farm in Darien in southern Wisconsin in 1845. Recognizing the importance of education for deaf children, James Dudley attended lessons with a neighboring deaf girl whose family had hired a tutor. This class of two students became the genesis of the Wisconsin State School for the Deaf f…