The following biography was submitted by his daughter, Charlene Handford Barlow in March of 2006:

Charles R. Handford was a self-taught artist who painted landscapes in a realist style. Though his father and grandfather were wealthy and prominent business leaders in Batesville, Arkansas, the family money dwindled during his early childhood. As a result, his later childhood was one of poverty. He developed an interest in art and taught himself to paint by finding rough materials at the city dump. This talent directed him to enter the sign business during the years of the Depression.

In the late 1930s he married Ventrice Bissell of Shreveport, Louisiana. They eventually settled in Batesv...