Vidie Lange was born in Dubuque and grew up at Four Mounds as a member of the Burden family. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Iowa, and Clarke University. She was the originator and instructor of the Lumina Workshop in Boulder, Colorado and an instructor at the Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge.

Misty Black commemorates the coverage of the James Henry Pierce double murder trial in the spring of 1968 by the local newspaper, the Telegraph-Herald. One of the state’s two chief witnesses, Patricia Ann Hooker, stage name Misty Black, was a go-go dancer who performed in an East Dubuque, Illinois lounge where the murders took place. According to her testimony, Misty Black had been asked on a date by Pierce. She could not accept because she had promised to go out with a musician who was a member of the band playing at the lounge. The musician and one of his fellow band members were shot at close range by Pierce, apparently in a fit of jealously, in front of witnesses outside the lounge. Pierce was convicted of murder and sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.