Ernestine Fields was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on December 14, 1897. Her parents were Frank and Sarah Fields. She was also the cousin of Clara Malloy. Ernestine Fields spent part of her childhood in Hays, Kansas. In 1917, she graduated from Fort Hays Kansas State Normal School with a certificate in piano and organ theory. In 1918, she graduated from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago after studying piano with Allen Spencer and orchestration with Arthur Olaf Anderson.

During the Summer of 1924, she taught at the Kansas State Teachers College of Hays following the illness of Miss Daisy Pierson. Fields taught music at several different schools including Synodical College in Fulton, Missouri where she taught in the piano and organ department. She also taught at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Her longest tenure was at High Point College, in High Point, North Carolina. She performed many recitals around Hays at the local churches and at the college. Ernestine Fields died in 1993.