His parents were Francis Marion Parks, Jr. and Roxie Belle Nations. Ernest was born in Amarillo, Texas. In 1909 his family moved to Hale County,TX and lived on a farm about 4 miles north of Plainview. Charlie came to Plainview in 1910 at age seven. Ernest attended Liberty School, which was located next to his home. He spent about a year in Cripple Creek, Colorado, working in the gold mines before he married Edna Weyl,the daughter of Fred Delos and Augusta Amelia Weyl,on May 10, 1925 in Floydada Texas. They first lived on Nassau Street and Ernest was a painter. They moved to Tulia where he had a Battery and Electric Shop. Then they moved to Amarillo where he also was a painter. When they moved back to Plainview, he had a Magneto Shop.In 1943 they moved to Trinidad, Colorado, and Ernest bought 1/3 interest in a gun manufacturing factory. They spent two months traveling the United States. In their travels over the years they visited every state in the union and Canada and Mexico. Once they were in a cafe in a very small town (Beaver) in Utah and Edgar Bergen and his wife and Dick Powell and June Alyson came in and ate at the adjoining table. When they were in Key West, they noticed cars stopping in the middle of the street and discovered they were picking up coconuts. They could hear them falling all night from the trees around their motel. They picked one up the next day and brought it home, dried it and had it the rest of their lives. After their travels they stayed in Port Arthur Texas for two months where he did some painting. They moved back to Plainview where he was a paint foreman in the Home Specialty shop. The last three years of his life he ran a gun shop from his home in Hillcrest Addition and custom made guns from start to finish. He was a member of the Finney Baptist Church located 5 miles north of Plainview. He restored a 1905 Reo automobile, refurbishing it from 1954 to 1967. They belonged to the Horseless Carriage Club,and he and Edna would dress up for that era and drive in parades. He and his father were amateur anthropologists and had an extensive collection of Indian Artifacts. They lived with the C. L. Smith family for about a year during the depression. They had no children.