Sesquicentennial Stories: Alumna's Art for Education
LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 12, 2013) — In celebration of the University of Kentucky's upcoming sesquicentennial in 2015, the 48th of 150 weekly installments remembers Austin Page Lilly, an alumna who demonstrated a lifelong commitment to education and her alma mater as a Donovan Scholar instructor.
Austin Page Lilly was the daughter of Judge Grant E. Lilly and Anna Dudley McGinn Lilly. She graduated from UK in 1919 with a bachelor's degree in home economics (now part of degrees offered in the School of Human Environmental Sciences). During Lilly’s time at UK, she was involved in a number of clubs and extracurricular activities including the YWCA, Alpha Xi Delta and the Home Economics Club.
In 1950, Lilly was one of a select group of the nation’s public school teachers chosen to visit Cuba at the invitation of the island government. After graduation, Lilly went on to teach domestic science at Lexington Junior High School until 1966.
While she was a teacher, Lilly took college courses in art. In the late 1950s, she studied at the University of Arizona, the University of California, Transylvania University and the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. At Transylvania, she studied two summers under New York artist Fritz Kredel.
Lilly took courses for a number of years as a Donovan Scholar at UK until she became an instructor in the program in 1969. She served as a painting and art appreciation instructor in the Donovan Program for 14 years. In 1983, she retired from the program.
In addition to her work in education and the arts, Lilly was a member of the Lexington chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Kentucky Historical Society and the Lexington Audubon Club. She died in 1991 at the age of 95.
This story on UK's history is presented by UK Special Collections. Special Collections is home to UK Libraries' collection of rare books, Kentuckiana, the Archives, the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, the King Library Press and the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center. The mission of Special Collections is to locate and preserve materials documenting the social, cultural, economic and political history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, (859) 257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu