Emmett Leo Kelly was born in Sedan, Kansas on December 9, 1898. His father, Thomas, was a section foreman for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad. While still a child, the family moved to a farm in Southern Missouri, where his father had purchased a farm in Texas County, near the community of Houston. In the summer of 1909, he attended both the Mighty Haag and M.L. Clark and Son's circuses.
As a youth, his mother Mollie enrolled him in the Landon School of Cartooning, a correspondence school where he began developing his artistic skill.
In 1917 Kelly moved to Kansas City, hoping to get a job as a newspaper cartoonist. It was there that he created a cartoon of a tramp that he originally named "Old Dubey." While in Kansas City, Kelly began working for carnivals and circuses and trained as a trapeze artist.
In August 1920 Kelly returned to his adopted hometown of Houston, Missouri where he appeared as a "cartoonist and comedy specialist" at the town's annual "Old Settlers Reunion."

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