Browse Items (48 total)

Sara Egelston Akers is the founder of Plano Children’s Theatre, now known as the North Texas Performing Arts. NTPA is the largest children’s theatre in the county, and one of the first to allow students with disabilities to participate in modified…

Rebecca Egelston Caso is a Plano real estate agent with over 25 years of community engagement.

She has received the Citizen of the Year and Distinguished Leader Award from the Plano Chamber of Commerce and was named to the Top Ten Women of Collin…

Bessie Heard is known for the creation the Heard Wildlife Sanctuary and Museum in 1964 with the purchase of 207 acres of land. In her earlier years she obtained a charter for the McKinney Library and helped raise funds to buy books and purchase a…

Kathryn Heard-Craig is the namesake of the Heard-Craig Center for the Arts. She was the founder of the Art Club of McKinney in 1914, served as president, and co authored a fifty-year history of the organization.

It was her wish that upon her…

Iola Lee Davis was born in McKinney, Texas, on January 28, 1927, to Lonnie and Artishia Young Davis. She grew up in the era of segregation, attending McKinney’s E.S. Doty School and was Valedictorian of her graduating class.

When she began her…

Helen Gibbard Hall served as a third-grade teacher at Fanny Finch Elementary School. After her retirement, she and her husband Capt. Roy Hall, wrote a book on the history of Collin County. After Roy's death in 1970, Helen continued to research local…

Judy Gay has been a prominent supporter of the McKinney Public Library System for many years.

In 2008, the John and Judy Gay Library was named in honor of the couples’ service to the community.

Mrs. Gay taught English and creative writing at…

Bertha Bailey was a well-loved cornerstone of the educational system in McKinney. Mrs. Bailey served MISD for 30 years before her passing with many students considering her as a second mother.

During her career, she was responsible for creating a…