Rose Ruth Morgan was born on 11 January 1873, in Leavenworth, Kansas. Both of her parents, Walter Ferris Morgan and Eliza Knowles Morgan, were physicians. Rose graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kansas in 1894. For several years, she taught Latin and German at Topeka High School.

Rose returned to the University of Kansas to work on her Master of Arts degree, which she received in 1905. In 1910, Rose was appointed as an instructor of rhetoric at KU. She was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1916, and then to Associate Professor in 1924. During 1932, she studied at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England. Rose taught in the English department at KU until her retirement in 1944. She died of a heart attack on 2 September 1951.

Rose was raised as a Quaker and she remained active in the Society of Friends throughout her many years of residence in Lawrence, Kansas. Her life was characterized by a desire to help others. As a college student, Rose had spent a few years living in the house of Professor William H. Carruth. She, in turn, welcomed needy students into her home at 1101 Missouri. Rose never married and she outlived all of her closest relatives. Upon her death, her home passed to the university. It was used as a residence for visiting professors until it was torn down in 1971.