Charlotte Joan Sternberg was born in Meriden, Connecticut in 1920.  Early on, she became interested in art, and her parents encouraged her efforts.  She attended public schools in the area, as well as taking art classes at the technical school.  Afterwards, she attended the Yale School of Art.  Her fellow classmates included Rudolph Zallinger, who executed the dinosaur mural at the Peabody Museum in New Haven; Jean Day Zallinger, renowned book illustrator; and Edward Paier (showing 500 of 1919 characters).