Frank was born in Powhatan, Louisiana, to John and Ruth Garcia Steadman. His father was a farmer and self-taught veterinarian. The family lived in a one-bedroom house lit by kerosene lamps and lanterns. He remembers snow "coming in my face," between the cracks. "We were plenty poor," he says. Frank says he did not start to school until about age twelve, and finished the sixth grade. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1934, working four years as a cook before leaving the program in California. Returning to Louisiana, he helped build a bridge across the Mississippi River between Greenville, Mississippi and Lake Village, Arkansas. As an ironworker he was deferred from military service. Frank later helped construct a powder plant in Charlestown, Indiana, and a dam in Pierre, South Dakota. He erected quarters for workers who were constructing Jeep motors in Dearborn, Michigan. Beginning in 1943 he worked for the rest of the war at the Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco, repairing damaged naval vessels. "We worked ten hours, seven days," he says. In all, he says, he worked on "probably fifty" ships as a general foreman over twelve and more men. He was in Seattle in 1949 when he met and married Clara Chittich. She passed away on August 20, 1994. Frank was employed by American Bridge Company for several years. He and Clara lived in Los Angeles and Bakersfield, California, but he worked in many other places. He retired in 1971.They came to Shreveport in 1990.