Cecy Rose was born in Lexington, Kentucky on June 2, 1952. She was granted a partial scholarship in 1970 by the Murray State University Art Department where she studied painting, drawing and printmaking, graduating with a B.F.A. in painting and drawing in 1974. She got accepted into the graduate painting program at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence that same year, and worked in oils, mixed media and lithography under the instruction of several well established East and West Coast artists. In 1976, after receiving her M.F.A. from RISD and teaching a Summer Sessions Painting Program there, she moved to Pittsburgh, PA where she taught part-time at a small art school and worked as a free-lance graphic designer for several months. In 1977 she moved to the small community of Benwood, WV and began work as the head of the graphic arts department at West Virginia Northern Community College, where she also taught painting, drawing and printmaking classes part-time. She currently resides outside of Wheeling, WV and works out of her farmhouse studio, teaching part-time, as well, at the Stifel Fine Arts Center in Wheeling.