Born: October 29, 1869, Hastings, Michigan.
Died: October 19, 1952, Eola, Louisiana.
Buried: Pythian Cemetery, Bunkie, Louisiana.
Ernest was the son of William H. Sellers and Kate E. Armstrong.
After graduating from high school in Lansing, Michigan, he was apprenticed to a surveyor and civil engineer, and eventually became city engineer and superintendent of public works.
In 1895, he became a student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois.
From 1901–05, he was secretary of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Macon, Georgia; Washington, DC; and Wilmington, Delaware.
He then was appointed director of men’s work and assistant pastor at the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio (1905–07); and assistant director of the Music Department and professor of Sunday school pedagogy at the Moody Bible Institute (1908–19).
He worked for the YMCA Speakers Bureau in France and Germany during World War I.
After the war, he was became director of the Music Department of the Baptist Bible Institute, New Orleans, Louisiana. The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary named the E. O. Sellers Music Building after him.
In 1926, he helped compile The New Baptist Hymnal.