F. was born on 7 November 1890 in New York. Her parents are the Yiddish actors Jacob (Yakov) and Anna (Chana) Frank. She learned with a teacher (melamed) and in a public school.

She acted in children's roles on the Yiddish stage together with her parents followed their itinerant ways, and at the age of fifteen she acted in soubrette roles with Mike Thomashefsky in Philadelphia and later with various other troupes.

At the age of nineteen she married conductor Morris Lawrence and she retired from the stage, but in the 1928-29 season under the name of Bela Lawrence, she acted in Yiddish theatre in the Public Theatre in New York.
 

M. E. from Jacob Frank..