Eliza Quintilla Morgan Anders was born 10 August 1889 in Lafayette, Louisiana. She was the sixth child and only daughter of Alexander Archibald Morgan and Catherine Cobb Kennedy. Being home-schooled until the age of nine, she attended the second grade at Home Institute where remained until the seventh grade. Upon entering ninth grade, she attended Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute (later named Southwestern Louisiana Institute (SLI), now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), where she graduated there with two diplomas.

Ms. Anders (then Ms. Morgan) then embarked on a career in education. She attended State Normal School at Natchitoches and a Teacher Training-Institute where she received a First Grade Teacher’s Certificate. In 1918, she was named principal of the Northside School in Lafayette. In 1919, she married John Adam Anders and they lived in Arcadia, LA. She ended up returning to SLI to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree and attended Louisiana State University to obtain her Master of Arts Degree. She taught school in Broussard, Scott, Lafayette, and Arcadia for a total of 42 years.