Author Rosalis Montgomery (1912-2002), a descendant of Texas Judge Nicholas William
Battle, was born in Llano on October 12, 1912. In the 1920s, she moved to New York
City with her mother Rosalie Battle Hunt, an interior decorator, and graduated from
Barnard University with a bachelor’s degree in French in 1935. She attended the
Institut de Touraine in Tours, France, the Sorbonne in Paris, and the Royal Academy
of Dramatic Art in London. Before marrying James Robert (Bob) Montgomery (1912-1998)
upon his release from the army in 1945, Montgomery worked as an editorial researcher
for
After their marriage, the Montgomerys lived in Houston, Texas, where Bob worked as an
engineer for Exxon Company until he transferred to Tyler in 1949. They had two
children together, Seth Hunt and William Battle. Rosalis earned a masters degree
in French from Southern Methodist University and one in English from the University
of Texas at Tyler. Additionally, she served as the president of the Tyler chapters
of the League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women.
After her husband retired in the 1980s, he served as the mayor of Tyler for two
terms. During the 1990s, Montgomery began writing books based on her experiences in
New York and Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. These books include:
Source:
“Montgomery, Rosalis,” Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
Correspondence, journals, literary productions, financial and legal records,
newspaper clippings, memorabilia, printed material, photographs, and audiocassettes
comprise the Rosalis Montgomery Family Papers, 1866-1996, and document the lives of
the Montgomery family of Tyler, Texas. The bulk of the papers consists of Rosalis
Montgomery’s correspondence with family members, such as her mother, Rosalie Battle
Hunt; her sisters; her maternal grandparents, Thomas Elbridge and Susy Lucy Green
Battle; and her husband, James Robert Montgomery, while he served in the army during
World War II. Furthermore, the collection concerns Montgomery’s European sojourns
during the 1930s in France and Italy and includes her letters home from 1932 to 1939
as well as the journal she kept in Rome in 1939. Additionally, the papers contain
typescript copies of Montgomery’s literary productions
The collection is open for research use.
Rosalis Montgomery Family Papers, 1866-1996, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Some material has been separated to the Library Unit.
See also the Rosalie Battle Hunt Collection
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s “History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project,” 2009-2011.