BIRDIE ALEXANDER
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Birdie Alexander was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee on March 24, 1870. She moved to Texas with her family. She attended Mary Nash College in Sherman, Texas and Ward Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee where she studied piano and voice.
After her graduation in 1891, she moved to Dallas where she became a public school teacher, rising to the position of music supervisor in 1900. She is credited with laying the groundwork for music education in the Dallas schools. During her time in Dallas she established singing instruction in all grades, formed city-wide choral groups, created the Dallas High School orchestra program. Her curricular contributions also included music appreciation classes (utilizing phonographs) and folk dancing classes to teach rhythm in early elementary grades.
Ms. Alexander was a long-time member of the MENC and a powerful force for music education at both the national and local level. She was a charter member of the first board of directors of the Music Supervisors' National Conference and a driving force behind the formation of the music department of the Texas State Teachers Association. She was active in teacher education through her summer faculty posts at both the University of Texas (1908-10) and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. In 1912 she edited Songs We Like to Sing.
In 1913, ill health required her to move to El Paso, Texas, where she remained active in music, teaching piano, and through her leadership in other musical activities.
Even though her health kept her away, she as a strong voice of advocacy for the annual music supervisors' conference. In 1918, she encouraged her peers to attend the Evansville convention with these words"
It grieves me to tell yo that I must again be absent from the Supervisors' meeting.
I have had a long fight to win back my health, and though I am quite well now, I cannot yet take the risk incident to travel and change of climate this early in the spring.
Though I have been in this sanatorium for nearly five years, the inspiration of the Conferences that I have attended is still with me, and now greater privilege could be mine that to be present in Evansville.
To attend one meeting is to become a convert and ever afterward rebellious toward any fate or circumstance that interferes with these annual baptisms of professional spirit and the re-dedication of one's self to the highest service of which he is capable. (MSJ, Vol. 5, No. 1)
Upon the restoration of her health, Ms. Alexander continued to be active in music, teaching piano, and through her leadership in other musical activities. She died in El Paso on August 2, 1960.
(Sources: Texas State Historical Society; the Dallas Morning News)
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This information was compiled by
Jeff Davis
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