Richard Leon Spain was born September 15, 1916 in Greer County, Oklahoma. In 1935 his family relocated to Bentonville, Benton County, Arkansas, where Spain attended Bentonville High School and graduated in May 1935. He was close friends with Mrs. Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni a prominent poet and wife of a University of Arkansas Romantics professor. Ms. Marinoni encouraged Spain to publish his poetry, which was featured in several national poetry journals and contests all before he finished high school. His written collective works include Travelers of the Night (1938) and Rock and Cumulus (1942). In 1940 he began submitting articles to the Arkansas Gazette which led to a successful 51-year column entitled "Garden Forum." In 1987 he was contacted by the Bentonville Daily Democrat (currently the Daily Record), for which he wrote the column "On Gardening" until 2004.

Spain was an avid horticulturalist and a self taught botanical artist, in addition to being a well-known columnist and poet. In 1971 he began volunteer work as a floral minister at his church, the Bethel Baptist Church in Bentonville. Two of his greatest honors were a plaque from the Arkansas Press Association for more than fifty years as a columnist, and a plaque from Bethel Baptist Church in appreciation of his service as the church gardener. Spain lived in a nursing home in Bentonville until his death on August 19, 2010.