Frank Jerry Gamel was born to Frank James Gamel and Hazel Richardson Gamel in Grit, Texas, on January 17, 1929. He passed from this world in the early hours of September 8, 2019, at home as he had wished. He grew up on the family farm in Katemcy, Texas. He attended the early years of school at the Peters Prairie School in Camp Air; and then, the Mason County Schools consolidated and he attended Mason High School, where he graduated in 1946.