Vertical File Biographies

This is an individual biography from the vertical file of biographical information, primarily newspaper clippings, created by the Kansas State Histocial Society Library and Archives division. This is a concise version--there may be more information in this or other sources.

Lulu McKee

Miss Lulu McKee was the first public school kindergarten teacher in Topeka, Kansas. She started the program at the Parkdale School in 1908. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, the German Kindergarten movement made it’s way to America. The concept held that young children, age four to six would benefit from classroom orientation before entering the first grade.
Miss McKee graduated from Topeka High School about the time that Kansans became interested in the program. She attended a kindergarten training program that had been established at the Central Congregational Church where her studies were divided between lectures and actually working with children.

Lulu Mckee became an authority on kindergarten instruction and joined the faculty of Hayes Teacher’s College where she taught for ten years. While at Hayes she introduced the use of animals and plants into the curriculum so the children would learn more about the world around them.

Later, she joined the staff of Southard School conducted by the Menninger Clinic. Look Magazine in September 1958 had a picture of her with Dr. Karl Menninger who said, Much of what we’ve done for children (at the clinic) stems from Miss Lulu.” He had been a kindergarten pupil of hers.

Miss Mckee was born in Illinois and moved to western Kansas with her family in 1877. They lived in a sod house on her father’s homestead near present day Quinter. However, farming was not the life for her family and they moved to Topeka in 1880. Although she taught in Hayes for a number of years, Topeka was her home and where she died in 1964 at age 88.

Sources:
“Work Of Love,” Topeka Journal, 18 May 1912.
“Lulu Mckee Recalls Playground Too, She Taught First Topeka Kindergarten in 1908,” Topeka Capital Journal, 25 August 1963.
“Pioneer Teacher Miss Lulu Dies,” Topeka Capital Journal, 2 February 1964.

The vertical file is on forty-three microfilm reels arranged alphabetically by name. These reels are available through interlibrary loan, or you may contact the reference staff . Please note that many of the clippings had yellowed and it may be impossible to produce a readable photocopy.

Completion of this biography was made possible by volunteer Frank Sotrines.