Reed Crandall was born in Winslow, Indiana during the 1920s, but would graduate from Newton High School in Newton, Kansas in 1935. Following high school, Crandall attended the Cleveland School of Art in Cleveland, Ohio on a scholarship, graduating in 1939. He had left the school early in his freshman year to return to Kansas to assist his family after his father died. When he returned to Cleveland, his mother and sister followed, leaving the family home in Kansas behind during Reed's junior year.