Frances Dinsmore Davis was born in Arkansas to a pioneering family and attended public school in Chickasha, Oklahoma, before receiving an undergraduate degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan. After studying theatre in Chicago and New York City, she returned to Oklahoma as the first head of the speech department at Northeastern Teachers College (now Northeastern State University) in Tahlequah and then moved into the same position at Central State College (now the University of Central Oklahoma) in Edmond. She accepted the position of chairman of the speech department at Oklahoma College for Women (now the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma) in Chickasha in 1914, where she became dean of fine arts, professor of speech, and play director. Among her many outstanding students was Te Ata, whose interpretations of Native American rituals, songs and legends brought her world-wide fame.