Leona Pierce (1921-2002), painter, printmaker, textile artist, and teacher, was born in Santa Barbara, California on January 28, 1921. She moved to New York to study at the Art Students’ League and later enrolled at the New School where she came under the influence of Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Stuart Davis. At the age of thirty when she wed artist Antonio Frasconi, Pierce was already established as an artist and had an exhibition history with her woodcuts and hand printed textiles. The couple settled in Norwalk, Connecticut where she raised her sons Pablo and Miguel. Pierce is probably best known for her color woodcuts of children at play. Her work is represented in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Leona Pierce died on February 12, 2002.