Finch, Paula
PAULA FINCH
Courier Gazette, April 10, 1988, by Janet Margul
DREAMS OF BROADWAY
...[Paula Finch] was born in 1905 in Garland and spent her childhood in Farmersville.
Finch’s father had a store, R. G. McCain Co., up until the ravages of the Depression closed it.
“You would call it a department store now,” she said. “We called it a dry goods store then.”
When Finch was 13, the family moved to McKinney, where her father opened another R. G. McCain Co. store, where the Ritz Building stands now. She remembers growing up performing.
“I loved plays and recitations,” she said. “I had a lot of dreams. I wanted to go to New York City to the American Academy.”
But her father was what she called “a little old-fashioned” and wouldn’t let her go to New York City. He said she was too young. So she went to Southern Methodist University for a year, studying in SMU’s drama department.
“At that time it wasn’t much of a theater department,” she said. “It was mainly for training ministers.”
She remembers there were a lot of study clubs she attended, learning literature and literary criticism.
Finch attended a private school taught by Mrs. A. A. Cocke for two years, living with Cocke and her daughter.
“Mrs. Cocke was wonderful,” Finch said. “She was filled with Browning and Shakespeare and I absorbed it.”
She went back to SMU after her time of study with Cocke, and still remembers the differing points of view offered by some of her professors there....
Finch came back to McKinney to teach speech. And she married the boy next door, A. H. Finch.
“My husband was a wonderful man,” she said. “He was very supportive and indulgent. He was behind anything I wanted to do.”
She had married into one of the founding families of Collin County. When one mentions Finch Park, or Fannie Finch Elementary School, she is quick to point out, “That’s my husband’s family.”...
Finch’s love of books and the stage led her to professional book reviewing. She has given book reviews to groups all over Texas and, in an age where women generally stayed at home and kept house, she traveled to wherever a group would pay her.
“I loved book,” she said. “I still do. I read everything I could find. My life had been filled with Browning and Shakespeare and I had absorbed it. I always loved to give speeches, to perform.”
FOR LOVE OF A CHILD
The Finches’ only child, Paula, was born in 1931 and Finch admits that, from that time on, her life has been dominated by trying to help her daughter.
The child had special needs. Common procedure in 1931 would have been institutionalization at birth, but that was a course Finch couldn’t accept for her daughter.
“I’ve never told my daughter she had a handicap,” Finch said. “She’s 57 now and she still doesn’t know. I worked too make sure she would have a good life. Bit it was hard.”
She was fighting a uphill battle. In the Depression era, there were no resources available for mentally handicapped children. No Collin County Development Center, no special education classes in the schools. When Finch wanted to get her daughter ready for school, there were no kindergartens.
“So I got lesson plans from the university and started my own kindergarten,” Finch said. “I had several little children here, trying to prepare Paula for school, get her used to working with other children. I had the kindergarten for several years.”
When her daughter entered the public schools, Finch was ready to help her with her schoolwork. And she started substitute teaching, where she found that other children had problems, too.
“But I’ve always believed that if you can do something reasonably well, then you would be able to step over the things you couldn’t do as well,” Finch said. “We worked to find talents Paula could develop which would enable her to step over her weaknesses.”
For years Finch took her daughter to Dallas every Saturday for accordion lessons and Paula blossomed in them. The child became so accomplished a musician that she became part of a treasured Christmas entertainment – Paula playing and her mother telling Christmas stories.
“Paula played the accordion in her high school graduation ceremony,” Finch remembered. “That was a proud moment.”
After graduation, the Finches decided to put in a shop on the square – Paula’s Shop.
“We bought and sold beautiful things. I loved the shop,” Finch said. “We learned a lot and developed a keen appreciation of beautiful things. And it helped Paula.
“When I’d go to market, they would try to get us to buy junk, telling us that it would sell,” she said. “But I didn’t buy it. When people are exposed to beautiful things, they develop an appreciation for them. And the people of McKinney responded to that.
“But when my husband had a bad heart attack, he wanted us home with him,” Finch said. “And playing the accordion was not the most restful thing for a patient. So what were we to do?”
The mother and daughter took up art, learning to paint, and there Finch found what is probably one of her daughter’s strongest talents.
Paula’s fingerpaintings are unusual, full of color and rhythm and strength. Many people responded to her paintings and she won a number of awards in art shows.
“One year Paula won three blue ribbons,” Finch said. “That was the proudest day of my life.”
“Her accomplishments gave me the feeling I could step over a lot of things and she could, too. Looking back, Paula’s music and the art were her ways of succeeding. It proved that anyone could make it if they worked hard. But with Paula, it was harder.”
Finch says her daughter’s capacity for love is her greatest talent, however. Paula’s love is pure, her mother said, not sullied by jealousy or unkindness.
“She has such a pure love, Finch said. “I’m not like that, I don’t think anybody is. But Paula is. She had such a trusting, innocent, pure love like nobody else.”
ON THE WAY TO THE LIBRARY
In 1916, the Owl Club of McKinney organized the first library. According to Finch, it was a natural thing to do, considering the times.
“There was no television, no radio,” she said. “Women had a motive to improve themselves, their homes and their community. Women’s clubs were a means to achieve those goals.”
The clubs of McKinney banded together to form the Federation of Women’s Clubs. The Federation accomplished many things for the community in its strength, including the building of sidewalks.
“The thought of the library held them together,” Finch said. “It went on for 50 years and was a constant struggle. Many people gave individually, but the city gave as little as possible.”....
Finch started working with the library in the late 1930s....
Courier Gazette, April 10, 1988, by Janet Margul
DREAMS OF BROADWAY
...[Paula Finch] was born in 1905 in Garland and spent her childhood in Farmersville.
Finch’s father had a store, R. G. McCain Co., up until the ravages of the Depression closed it.
“You would call it a department store now,” she said. “We called it a dry goods store then.”
When Finch was 13, the family moved to McKinney, where her father opened another R. G. McCain Co. store, where the Ritz Building stands now. She remembers growing up performing.
“I loved plays and recitations,” she said. “I had a lot of dreams. I wanted to go to New York City to the American Academy.”
But her father was what she called “a little old-fashioned” and wouldn’t let her go to New York City. He said she was too young. So she went to Southern Methodist University for a year, studying in SMU’s drama department.
“At that time it wasn’t much of a theater department,” she said. “It was mainly for training ministers.”
She remembers there were a lot of study clubs she attended, learning literature and literary criticism.
Finch attended a private school taught by Mrs. A. A. Cocke for two years, living with Cocke and her daughter.
“Mrs. Cocke was wonderful,” Finch said. “She was filled with Browning and Shakespeare and I absorbed it.”
She went back to SMU after her time of study with Cocke, and still remembers the differing points of view offered by some of her professors there....
Finch came back to McKinney to teach speech. And she married the boy next door, A. H. Finch.
“My husband was a wonderful man,” she said. “He was very supportive and indulgent. He was behind anything I wanted to do.”
She had married into one of the founding families of Collin County. When one mentions Finch Park, or Fannie Finch Elementary School, she is quick to point out, “That’s my husband’s family.”...
Finch’s love of books and the stage led her to professional book reviewing. She has given book reviews to groups all over Texas and, in an age where women generally stayed at home and kept house, she traveled to wherever a group would pay her.
“I loved book,” she said. “I still do. I read everything I could find. My life had been filled with Browning and Shakespeare and I had absorbed it. I always loved to give speeches, to perform.”
FOR LOVE OF A CHILD
The Finches’ only child, Paula, was born in 1931 and Finch admits that, from that time on, her life has been dominated by trying to help her daughter.
The child had special needs. Common procedure in 1931 would have been institutionalization at birth, but that was a course Finch couldn’t accept for her daughter.
“I’ve never told my daughter she had a handicap,” Finch said. “She’s 57 now and she still doesn’t know. I worked too make sure she would have a good life. Bit it was hard.”
She was fighting a uphill battle. In the Depression era, there were no resources available for mentally handicapped children. No Collin County Development Center, no special education classes in the schools. When Finch wanted to get her daughter ready for school, there were no kindergartens.
“So I got lesson plans from the university and started my own kindergarten,” Finch said. “I had several little children here, trying to prepare Paula for school, get her used to working with other children. I had the kindergarten for several years.”
When her daughter entered the public schools, Finch was ready to help her with her schoolwork. And she started substitute teaching, where she found that other children had problems, too.
“But I’ve always believed that if you can do something reasonably well, then you would be able to step over the things you couldn’t do as well,” Finch said. “We worked to find talents Paula could develop which would enable her to step over her weaknesses.”
For years Finch took her daughter to Dallas every Saturday for accordion lessons and Paula blossomed in them. The child became so accomplished a musician that she became part of a treasured Christmas entertainment – Paula playing and her mother telling Christmas stories.
“Paula played the accordion in her high school graduation ceremony,” Finch remembered. “That was a proud moment.”
After graduation, the Finches decided to put in a shop on the square – Paula’s Shop.
“We bought and sold beautiful things. I loved the shop,” Finch said. “We learned a lot and developed a keen appreciation of beautiful things. And it helped Paula.
“When I’d go to market, they would try to get us to buy junk, telling us that it would sell,” she said. “But I didn’t buy it. When people are exposed to beautiful things, they develop an appreciation for them. And the people of McKinney responded to that.
“But when my husband had a bad heart attack, he wanted us home with him,” Finch said. “And playing the accordion was not the most restful thing for a patient. So what were we to do?”
The mother and daughter took up art, learning to paint, and there Finch found what is probably one of her daughter’s strongest talents.
Paula’s fingerpaintings are unusual, full of color and rhythm and strength. Many people responded to her paintings and she won a number of awards in art shows.
“One year Paula won three blue ribbons,” Finch said. “That was the proudest day of my life.”
“Her accomplishments gave me the feeling I could step over a lot of things and she could, too. Looking back, Paula’s music and the art were her ways of succeeding. It proved that anyone could make it if they worked hard. But with Paula, it was harder.”
Finch says her daughter’s capacity for love is her greatest talent, however. Paula’s love is pure, her mother said, not sullied by jealousy or unkindness.
“She has such a pure love, Finch said. “I’m not like that, I don’t think anybody is. But Paula is. She had such a trusting, innocent, pure love like nobody else.”
ON THE WAY TO THE LIBRARY
In 1916, the Owl Club of McKinney organized the first library. According to Finch, it was a natural thing to do, considering the times.
“There was no television, no radio,” she said. “Women had a motive to improve themselves, their homes and their community. Women’s clubs were a means to achieve those goals.”
The clubs of McKinney banded together to form the Federation of Women’s Clubs. The Federation accomplished many things for the community in its strength, including the building of sidewalks.
“The thought of the library held them together,” Finch said. “It went on for 50 years and was a constant struggle. Many people gave individually, but the city gave as little as possible.”....
Finch started working with the library in the late 1930s....
