Life is funny sometimes. Kids who grew up in the East Liberty community in Pittsburgh are a certain kind of person -- the good kind, but you can tell. (Only if you're another Pittsburgher.)

When Frank was growing up, no one realized his enormous talent, until middle school. It took a good teacher, who was smart enough to recognize it. Frank always remembered her. She helped him to figure out what and who he was.

Frank Marcello grew up in the Great Depression. His father, Pasquale, who came from Italy at only 27 years old, did anything he could to feed his family. In fact, he laid streetcar tracks on Liberty Avenue, a main thoroughfare in downtown Pittsburgh. And he save every dime he could for barber school.

By the '50s, Pasquale owned a barber shop in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. He looked stern, and he could be, but inside he was a man with bravery and a fair heart.

Frank's mother ran an Italian Deli on Station St. in East Liberty. All of her kids worked in the store, slicing lunch meat and making sandwiches. Rose was a great people person. Everyone loved her. She was saucy and kind.

But things weren't at the place where the Marcellos could afford a fancy art school. They had three other children.

After graduating Peabody High School, in the heart of East Liberty, Frank won a full scholarship to art school in Rome, but couldn't accept it. He did accept a full scholarship to the Barnes Foundation, a very important place in the art world. Today, it is a museum and patron of the arts.

Then Frank Marcello met Irene Wakossky, and the story continues as a result...