Fanny Finch Elementary School

Historical marker location:

1205 S. Tennessee, McKinney, Texas

( 1205 S. Tennessee, McKinney)

Marker installed: 1978

Laura Frances (Fanny) Shipe (1866-1942) was born in Woodstock, Va., and educated in Texas. In 1890, after teaching at McKinney's Collegiate Institute, she married Henry A. Finch (d. 1934), later a Texas legislator and mayor of the city. The couple had 7 children. In 1917 Mrs. Finch became one of the state's first women to serve on a school board. A born leader, she helped found such enterprises as the Owl Literary Club and the city's first Garden Club. She and her husband gave sites for a park and a college. This school was named in her honor in 1924.** (1978)***.

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