North Omaha has been home to numerous businessmen, some becoming prominent and important, others common and sustained. One had a grocery store near 24th and Lake that lasted more than two decades. This is a biography of businessman State E. Montgomery.

State E. Montgomery (1875-1946) was born in Beatrice, Alabama. In a later census, Mr. Montgomery was noted as being from Alabama, with parents from South Carolina. His parents, Jerry (b1830) and Emma (b1840) had seven children. He was also noted as “mulatto,” a racist term for a person of mixed white and Black ancestry.

Moving to Omaha in 1919, Slate brought his wife Mary (1876–1954), his son, State Montgomery Jr. (b1895) and his daughter, Bertha (1899-1972). In its social section, The Monitor reported he was “a carpenter by trade and is looking over Omaha as a possible place of future abode.”

In 1919, Mr. Montgomery opened his original grocery store at 1411 North 24th Street, at 24th and Paul Street. Reportedly opening “one of the first grocery stores” owned by an African American in Omaha a Black-owned newspaper said, “His business has steadily grown which gives the lie to the statement that Negroes will not support Negroes. Mr. Montgomery has given service. He has not sold color but service… We are glad to see his business expanding and gladly bespeak for him an ever-enlarging patronage.”

Just a few years later though, he moved his operation into a “very small grocery” at 2513 Lake. In 1925, he moved into a “large new concrete building” at 2531 Lake. The newspaper reported “…he had his formal opening… with a record-breaking patronage. On the opening day efficiency of service for the race was shown by the manner in which the great crowd was promptly served by the willing corps of workers in charge.” Opening with “a new fresh stock of groceries, meats, canned goods, vegetables and sundries,” the business offered delivery for the first time, too. The Monitor reported, “All the work in the building except the plumbing, was done by the Nebraska Plumbing Company, a race institution, and the fixtures was done by the owner himself.” His wife worked in the business with him, and their daughter Bertha, too.

The store had living quarters in the back, and the family lived there for decades.

Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery were charter members of Cleaves Temple CME Church. Established in 1920, the church is still operating today in its original building at 2431 Decatur Street. He stayed active as a trustee until his death, and attended regional gatherings for the church annually for several years.

In 1946, State E. Montgomery died in Omaha. He was buried in Forest Lawn.

Mr. Montgomery’s wife Mary and daughter Bertha originally thought they would continue running the store after he died, but ended up selling it later on to Neeley Williams (1892-1981). Mary died in 1954.

The store was renamed the Lake Street Grocery late in 1946. In 1959, the building was crashed into by a car, and in the 1980s all the buildings at this corner were demolished to make was for the Heartland Family Services building and parking lot.

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