Theo Finley was born in Helena, Arkansas, in 1902. He had five sisters and two brothers. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father was a farmer and a blacksmith. Theo came to Illinois in 1919. He went back to Arkansas to attend Sout hland College and later went to Chicago School for Engineering to get a degree in applied electrical engineering. His interest in art led him to study lettering and poster art in Chicago. During the 1930s, while he lived in Chicago, he owned and operated Finley Cab Company and his own sign and poster art shop. He moved to Springfield in 1944. There he met Jessie Mae Kenniebrew, who directed the church choir that he had joined. She proposed to him and they were married in 1946. Jessie had a son and a daughter from her first marriage to Dr. Alonzo Kenniebrew. The details of this story were gathered through a series of oral interviews with both Theo and Jessie Mae Finley.