What's in a name?

Thoughts of bringing culture to a rough-and-tumble tent city might not have been on Louise D. McMahon’s mind when she moved to Lawton in 1901 with her husband, Eugene, and their young son.

However, she studied music as a child and as an older student attending boarding school to begin preparation for a teaching certificate. Ms. McMahon became Lawton’s first piano teacher, as she taught music while E.P. worked selling insurance and real estate. Throughout the years, she also became a published author and painter.

She was born in Missouri on Jan. 18, 1873, to John and Martha Davis and had two younger brothers, one who died as an infant. E.P. was born Nov. 1, 1862, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The couple met when Ms. McMahon returned home from boarding school to continue her studies upon the arrival of a teacher who made the upper grade education available. This teacher was E.P., and they married in Clyde, Kansas, in August 1892, after she graduated. She was 19 and he was 29. They had one son, Eugene D., who was born Jan. 28, 1895.

Young Eugene was six years old when the McMahon family moved to Lawton. His father, E.P., had been superintendent of city schools at Clyde, Troy and Minneapolis, Kansas, for 12 years. Prior to becoming a superintendent, he had taught school at Concordia, Kansas. E.P. was enthusiastic about the opportunities available that a new homestead in Lawton could bring. They had already moved to the frontier town when it opened on Aug. 6, 1901.

Education still played a major role in E.P.’s life and career and he offered his skills to help shape Lawton’s new schools. There are many references in the early day “Lawton Democrat” and “Lawton Constitution-Democrat” of him being elected to the school board and offering opinions when controversies arose. From 1909 to 1917, he served as secretary of the Lawton School Board.

Eugene began working at the age of 15 for the “Lawton Constitution” selling advertising. He went on to study journalism at the University of Oklahoma in Norman and, after graduating in 1915, became a newspaper manager and served time in the Army Air Corps during World War I. After the war, Eugene found great success through oil royalties mostly in East and Central Texas. He combined his two passions of marketing and oil to become a successful businessman.

In 1926, after 25 years of living in Lawton, the McMahons moved to San Antonio, Texas, with their son, where he successfully ran the McMahon Royalties Company. He made a good living during the Great Depression and invested his parent’s money. Due to health problems in San Antonio, E.P. still returned to Lawton three or four months of the year to live and maintain the family farm. He died May 15, 1936.

Eugene had two brief marriages, but no children to carry on the family name. Within a few years after his father passed away, he began plans to form a charitable foundation in the community where he grew up to honor the memory of E.P. In 1940, The McMahon Foundation was formed by mother and son each donating $50,000 and enlisting a board of trustees. When Eugene died in 1945, Ms. McMahon moved back to Lawton. Within five years of establishing the Foundation, its assets had grown to $1 million.

McMahon Memorial Auditorium, located in Elmer Thomas Park, was built to honor the memory of Eugene. On Friday, March 11, 1955, Ms. McMahon dedicated the auditorium to the use of the citizens of Lawton for the advancement of music, the arts and other forms of educational and cultural endeavors.

“In an increasing appreciation of those arts that elevate the spirit of man, I dedicate this building to the service of the people of Lawton,” she said.

A year prior to the opening of the auditorium, Ms. McMahon had been inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

“Everyone loved her. I know I just did,” said Jennie L. McCutcheon in a 1983 interview published in the “Daily Oklahoman.” “She was kind, gracious, genteel, modest, dedicated to the Presbyterian Church … and a businesswoman. She was thrifty and sharp as a tack.” McCutcheon was a former secretary and companion to Ms. McMahon and became supervisor of the foundation when Ms. McMahon died Feb. 8, 1966.

“You cannot overestimate the impact the McMahon Foundation has had on the city,” said former YMCA Director Dick Hoffman in the 1983 “Daily Oklahoman” interview. “It is by far the leading contributor here.”

Flags in Lawton flew at half-mast upon Ms. McMahon’s death, as the city mourned the death of the philanthropist who made lasting contributions to the civic, cultural and educational enrichment of Lawton and Oklahoma.

That might not have been her vision when she arrived in newly-formed Comanche County with other adventurous, pioneering families in 1901. But the life-long contributions of the McMahon family went above and beyond to bring culture to the former rough-and-tumble tent city.

Sources for this article include oklahomahof.com/member-archives/m/mcmahon-louise-davis-1954; “Percussive Arts Society International Headquarters and Museum: The Formative Years in Lawton, Oklahoma, 1989-1995” by Lisa Luwane Rogers, Doctor of Musical Arts Thesis, University of Oklahoma Graduate College, copyright 1999; “The Grand High Priests of Oklahoma Royal Arch Masonry” by Trasen Solesmont Akers, books.google.com; CUF Annual Report 2020, issuu.com; lawton.gov/history; “McMahon Foundation Infuses $1.5 Million Annually Into Lawton’s Future” by Joan M. Biskupic, oklahoman.com, March 13, 1983.