Elizabeth Seamans was born in 1947 in Massachusetts. She went to Wellesley High School in Wellesley, Massachusetts then attended Harvard University. At Harvard she served as the editor of the Harvard Crimson; graduating with a Bachelor's Degree with honors in fine arts.
After Harvard, she worked for a few years as a reporter for the Boston Herald Traveler. Elizabeth then left Boston and moved to Pittsburgh to work on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. For the television show she served both as a scriptwriter and actor. Elizabeth played the role of Mr. McFeely's wife. After receiving a National Endowment for the Arts in 1977, Elizabeth created Conversations in Rhyme. Parts of this piece are still screened in the Museum of Modern Art.
Like his wife, Joseph (Joe) Seamans works in media arts. Joe has worked as a producer, director, writer, cinematographer, and editor. He was been creating documentary films since the 1970s. For 25 years he worked at WQED Pittsburgh where he worked as a producer and photographer. He was the creator of the National Geographic Emmy Award winning series called National Geographic Explorer.
Some of Joseph's more recent work has been with PBS producing work for NOVA. He wrote, co-produced and directed 'The Great Robot Race'. This is a documentary that follows the development of driverless vehicles that are competing in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge.
Elizabeth and Joseph have two children, Michael and Annie. Michael own and operates a vinyl record shop in Pittsburgh. Annie passed away after being in an automobile accident in 1991. She was 19 years old. In Annie's honor the family along with artist Janet Zweig refurbished the walled gardens of Mellon Park in Pittsburgh. They installed art exhibit that inlayed granite and lights in the ground to match the night sky when Annie was born on November 20, 1979.
The Seamans Family have two funds at The Pittsburgh Foundation. The Anchor Fund helps support the arts, social justice, the environment, sustainable agriculture and programs for children. The Ann Katharine Seamans Fund was created in 2000 by the family in honor of their daughter Annie. This fund was used to support the project in Mellon Park in Annie's honor as well as programs Annie enjoyed.