Estella Mary Montgomery was born in 1882 at
Brierfield Plantation in
Davis Bend, Mississippi, to parents Martha Robb and
Isaiah Thornton Montgomery. Her parents were formerly enslaved by
Joseph Emory Davis, the brother of
Confederate President Jefferson Davis. She graduated from
Straight University. In 1904, she married James H. Kent, a prominent African barber in St. Louis and moved there. They divorced around 1920, she returned to her maiden name and moved back to Mound Bayou. In 1939, Estella occupied the empty house of her late father in Mound Bayou which was then owned by Eugene and Mary Booze. Eugene Booze arranged for white
deputies from a neighboring town to eject her from the house, but during the eviction process she was shot four times by the police and died. Nobody was ever charged. Her homicide so angered residents of Mound Bayou, including Mayor Benjamin A. Green, that many demanded that Eugene P. Booze leave the community on account of how he dealt with his sister-in-law. Only weeks after her slaying, he was assassinated in Mound Bayou by parties unknown. == References ==