Rosalie Melissa Hicks was born at White Oak Villa(the old Hicks homestead in Granville County which was an original land grant from Lord Granville), the oldest child of seven children of Benjamin Willis Hicks and Isabella Jane Crews. Her education was the best her day afforded. Her younger brother Thurston wrote: "During the war, when I was five years old, Mrs. Asenath F. Cheatham opened a school... I was sent to go with my older sister Rosa, two years older." She attended Cary Academy at Cary, NC and was married December 17, 189 to Samuel Rogers Harris, a prominent tobacconist and banker of Henderson.

She had 9 children all of whom survived her - Mabel, Myrtle (Mrs. Dawson Martin Yerkes), Olive (Mrs. R. M. Andrews), Ethel (Kirby), Roselle (Mrs. S. R. Watson), Samuel R. Harris Jr., Virgie (Mrs. James H. Pyle), Julian Earl, and Willard W.- who between them provided her with 13 great grandchildren. She was also survived by two brothers, A.A. Hicks and H. B. Hicks.

She was a life-long worker for the cause of righteousness, a leader for temperance work and taught the Woman's Bible class in the Methodist Protestant church until she lost her eyesight from diabetes five years before her death. She taught herself touch typing so that she could still correspond with her children. With the help of her husband, she learned hundreds of hymns and poems, and not only numerous verses of scripture but whole chapters by heart. Her husband called her Daisy. She called her flowers "God's Smiles", and worked in her flower garden until the day of her death. Her friends marveled at her never-failing cheerfulness and poise. Funeral service was at the Methodist Protestant church with pastor Rev. T. J. Whitehead in charge. Active pall bearers were nephews Jasper B. Hicks, Benjamin H. Hicks, Will Minor Hicks, B. Frank Harris, Lueco R. Harris and Reed H. Harris. Honorary pall bearers were the directors of the First National Bank and members of Mr. Harris' Bible class and the following: B. Frank Robards, J.C. Gardner, I. J. Young, A. J. Cheek, S. T. Peace, E. R. Austin, E.C. Kittrell, R. T. Upchurch and Jere Zollicoffer.