MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A ninth-grade biology lesson at the Oklahoma School for the Blind quickly turned into a history lesson — and a two-year mission to honor the woman who started it all.
Students learned about Lura Lowrey, the school's founder and first superintendent, and discovered she was buried at Greenhill Cemetery, just half a mile from campus — but without a headstone, only a small marker.
Several students brought the idea of getting a proper headstone to their student council, where the effort gained traction and the search for Lowrey's burial site began. Students found that Lowrey and her family were buried in a nearby lot.
Those students who started the initiative are now juniors. Student Council President Piper Conner said seeing the entire school gathered at the gravesite was astonishing.
"We needed to find some funding and we wanted to start on the topic of getting a headstone. And then the message just spread throughout the school and then we found the old school song and the choir had learned that. So we kind of brought in multiple different groups and everybody together," Conner said.
Several alumni members also came out to support the school, having helped in the process as well. Conner said without Lowrey, she's not sure how far the school would have come for visually impaired students in Oklahoma.
The current superintendent said the effort took about seven months just to secure funding for the headstone.
What began as a biology lesson became a two-year mission to ensure Lowrey will be remembered for years to come.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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