Melissa Price was born into slavery around 1850 in Clarksville, Missouri. Her first owner, Judge Owsley, eventually sold her to John Edward Forgery of Paynesville. She married Perry Parker (Percy Scott), and then later married Isaac Price in Paynesville on August 7, 1879. The couple had no children. Her husband died in Elsberry on September 16, 1901, and she secured a widow's pension of $8 per month. The government dropped her from the pension rolls in 1906 after she married Robert Steele. She died on January 24, 1925, due to complications with pneumonia.