DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, and this one deserves a slow, respectful pace. Laura L. Kuykendall.
Born in 1883, gone in 1935, and the kind of person who leaves a building standing in her name long after she's left the room. That right there tells you something. Southwestern University's board of trustees didn't name things lightly.
They named this women's building for Laura in 1935, the same year they lost her, and that timing carries weight. That's not a committee dragging its feet. That's people who knew exactly what they had, and didn't want a single year to pass without saying so.
Laura served as dean of women at Southwestern University from 1918 all the way through 1935. Seventeen years of shaping young women's lives on that campus. And she came to that work with deep roots, the kind that go clear back before Texas was Texas.
She was a descendant of pre-1820 Texas settlers. So when Laura walked those halls, she wasn't just serving the institution. In a way, she was walking ground her people had a hand in claiming before most of the map had a name on it.
She was also an artist. A teacher of dramatic interpretation. So she understood story, she understood the weight a moment can carry, the way silence before a line lands harder than the line itself.
That sensibility had to have shaped every conversation she had with students, every piece of counsel she gave across those years. When the board of trustees named this building in her honor, they cited three things: her exemplary Christian life, her influence on students, and her love for Southwestern. Not her titles.
Not her credentials. Her life. Her influence.
Her love. Those are the things that get a building named after you. And that building, standing right there in Williamson County, still carries her name.
Laura L. Kuykendall. Some folks leave a mark on paper.
She left one in brick.
What the marker says
(1883-1935) Southwestern University dean of women, 1918-1935. Descendant of pre-1820 Texas settlers. An artist and teacher of dramatic interpretation. In tribute to her exemplary Christian life, her influence on students, and her love for Southwestern, the board of trustees in 1935 named this women's building in her honor. (1968)