Born in Findlay, Ohio in 1927, Elmore has lived on the Monterey Peninsula since 1950. He earned a B.A. in psychology with a minor in art from Bowling Green State University and joined the Navy after graduating during WWII. He also served in the South Pacific and with the occupation forces in Japan from 1950 to 1952. After his military service, he traveled extensively throughout Asia, Mexico, Russia, and Europe. He later lived and taught on the Isle of Capri before settling in Carmel, where he operated his own art gallery from 1950 to 1960. Elmore studied at the Academy of Advertising Art in San Francisco and took lessons from John and Patricia Cunningham at the Carmel Art Institute. He was juried into the Carmel Art Association in 1957.