Kidd-Key College and Music Conservatory

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way up in Grayson County, in the city of Sherman, there stood an institution that left a mark on this part of Texas, and honestly, on much of the nation. It began in 1875, going by the name North Texas Female College, a finishing school for young ladies, operating under the North Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

A proper place. A serious place. The kind of school that meant something to the families who sent their daughters there.

But the story doesn't stop at 1875. Not by a long stretch. Come 1919, the school was rechartered as a junior college and music conservatory, and with that new chapter came a new name.

Kidd-Key College and Music Conservatory, named in memory of a woman the marker simply calls a famed educator: Mrs. Lucy Ann Kidd-Key, who served as school president from 1888 to 1916. Now that is a run.

Nearly three decades at the helm of a school, shaping it, building it, and apparently leaving behind a reputation strong enough that when the time came to rename the place, her name was the one people reached for. The educational program at Kidd-Key put music, literature, and the fine arts at its center. Not as extras.

Not as ornaments. As the core of what the school was. And through its many students and its excellent faculty, Kidd-Key sent its influence rippling outward.

The marker says it plainly: strong cultural influence on the Sherman area, and well beyond that, much of the nation. That's not a small claim. That's a school that punched above its weight, year after year.

The marker itself was placed at the request of the Sherman Kidd-Key Club, through the Sherman City Council. A community remembering something it didn't want to lose. That's the story of Kidd-Key College, and some legacies, it turns out, are worth carving in stone.

What the marker says

Established in 1875 as North Texas Female College, a finishing school for young ladies, and operated by North Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Recharted 1919 as a junior college and music conservatory; renamed in memory of the famed educator, Mrs. Lucy Ann Kidd-Key, school president, 1888 to 1916. Educational program emphasized music, literature and the fine arts. Through its many students and excellent faculty, Kidd-Key exerted strong cultural influence on the Sherman area as well as much of the nation. Incise on back: Sherman City Council at the request of Sherman Kidd-Key Club