Carrie Ellen Montgomery was born in Rockford, Illinois in February, 1878.  She gained her art training with studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Stone City Art Colony, and private classes in Estes Park, Colorado.  One of her notable paintings spent two years touring America as part of an American Federation of the Arts exhibit titled Iowa Speaks.  Montgomery's works were featured at the Iowa Art Salon (1931-1935), Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs showings (1932-1935), and at an Iowa Artist Exhibit in Mount Vernon, Iowa (1938).  Edward Rowan, director of the Little Gallery in Cedar Rapids, organized Montgomery's one-man show there in April, 1938. 

The wife of a minister and mother to five children, Montgomery managed to pursue her art talents quite adeptly, offering lectures to clubs and public painting demonstrations.  She received the 1937 Purchase Prize award from the federated clubs' Sioux City, Iowa exhibit for painting, Spring Willows.  In 1939, she resided in Cedar Rapids.

She signed her paintings as C.E. Montgomery