James Frederick Reno was born in Wheeling, West Virginia on March 14, 1929. He was raised by his mother who supported Jim and his older brother. Their mother, Mary Ann, was born in Belfast, Ireland. By the time the 1940 federal census was taken, Mary Ann was working in a Chrysler automobile factory in New Castle, Indiana, about 44 miles northeast of Indianapolis. Jim grew to love horses and remarked in some of his interviews how much he enjoyed drawing them. Jim added that he wasn’t drawing horses just because he wanted to draw them. He was drawing them because he wanted to be around them and be outside. His first attempt at sculpture was to carve a wooden Hereford cow, a project of a wood carving class. At the request of an ag teacher, it was used in class. His teacher entered it in a state competition, which it won. In a 2005 interview, he said that he still had that carved Hereford.
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