McKinney, Texas

Everything McKinney is known for

1 song mention this city 5 artists from here

Music in McKinney

Songs About McKinney

The Killing Season
A Tribe Called Quest
5%
"Turn the pool party into the one from McKinney"

Artists From McKinney

M
Madi Davis
pop
J
Joe Allison
country
T
The Excels
rock
J
J. Michael Tatum
other
J
Jack Tasty
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near McKinney

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near McKinney.

Interstate 45 8 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 35 43 songs Sulphur River 2 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Red River 87 songs

History of McKinney

The Oldest Man in the Room RoadyGoat

The town you are rolling through is named for the oldest man in one of the most important rooms in Texas history. On the second of March, eighteen thirty-six, at Washington-on-the-Brazos, fifty-nine delegates signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and broke away from Mexico. Collin McKinney was the oldest of them all, right around seventy years old. And he was not just there to sign. He was one of only five men appointed to actually draft the document, sitting down to write the words that created a new republic. Here is the detail that gets me. After the signing, the other delegates handed him the pen, out of respect for his age and his service. Think about that. A man born the same decade the American colonies were still arguing with a king ended up putting his name on the birth certificate of Texas. This town carries the name of the elder statesman of that room, the graybeard who had already lived a whole life before Texas even existed.

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One Life, Five Flags RoadyGoat

The man this town is named for lived so long that he answered to five different governments without ever leaving North America. Collin McKinney was born in seventeen sixty-six, ten years before the American colonies declared independence from Britain, and he died in eighteen sixty-one, right as the Civil War was breaking out. Do the math and that is about ninety-five years of life. His Texas historical marker puts it beautifully. It says he lived under the flags of five nations. He was born a British subject. He became a citizen of the brand new United States. He lived under Mexico when it held Texas. He helped create the Republic of Texas and signed its declaration. And in his final year, he lived under the Confederacy. Five flags, one man, one very long life. Most of us are lucky to see our world change once or twice in a big way. Collin McKinney watched the map of North America get redrawn around him again and again, and he kept surveying, preaching, and building through all of it.

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The Man Behind the Name RoadyGoat

Here is a naming quirk you almost never see. The town of McKinney and Collin County around it both honor the exact same man, and they split his name to do it. The county grabbed his first name, Collin. The county seat grabbed his last name, McKinney. Put them back together and you get Collin McKinney, a frontier surveyor who was the oldest of the fifty-eight delegates to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence back in eighteen thirty-six. So when you drive from Collin County into the city of McKinney, you are basically saying his full name out loud without realizing it. The Texas Legislature made both names official in the eighteen forties, carving this county out of the older, larger Fannin County in eighteen forty-six. Splitting one person's first and last name across a county and its own county seat is a genuinely unusual way to remember someone. Next time you see a Collin County road sign, remember you are only reading half of him. The other half is the town you are driving into.

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Christmas Attack of 1842 — Collin County Frontier

1842

On Christmas morning 1842 in Collin County, Texas, two frontier families were attacked by a raiding party. Both men were killed. Mrs. Clements held the cabin with a rifle while Mrs. Whisler survived by hiding under creek driftwood for hours, then wading miles downstream — clothing stripped by briars, streaming blood — to reach the settlement road. First published in the McKinney Advocate, April 3, 1880.

Historical Account →

Collin County Christmas Attack - 1842

1842

On Christmas Day 1842, Indians attacked settlers Clements and Whisler in Collin County. Clements was killed with a tomahawk; his wife drove the raiders off at gunpoint. Mrs. Whisler hid under driftwood in a flooded creek while Indians stood on the bank above her.

Collin McKinney

1836

Texas patriot and statesman. One of committee of five that wrote the Texas Declaration of Independence; one of its fifty-nine signers, March 2, 1836. Served in House of Representatives, Republic of Texas. In recognition of his distinguished service the county and county seat of Collin County bear his name. Born in New Jersey, April 17, 1766. Died in this house, September 9, 1861. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Historical Marker →

Throckmorton, James W., Law Office

1866

Texas Governor (1866-1867). Front remodeled but interior unchanged. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966

Historical Marker →

Allison, Joe Marion

1955

Joe Marion Allison was an influential disc jockey, songwriter, publisher, recording executive, and producer of country music . He was born in McKinney, Texas, on October 3, 1924, and attended East Van Zandt Elementary School in Fort Worth. From there, he went to junior high in McKinney and then to Denison High School in Denison, Texas, where he graduated in 1939. Allison enrolled in Murray Junior College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. In 1943 he landed his first radio station job on KPLT in Paris, Texas. He then moved to KMAC in San Antonio in 1944. After serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II , Allison joined country singing star Tex Ritter 's show as an emcee and toured the United States and Canada with Ritter's outfit. In 1946 Ritter had a Number 3 country hit with "When You Leave, Don't Slam the Door," a song Allison co-wrote. The tune helped launch Joe Marion Allison's successful songwriting career. In 1947 Allison moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and worked at WDAI radio. He subsequently moved to Nashville in 1949 and worked at radio station WMAK. Soon Allison, who would be known by his radio monikers "Jamboree Joe" and "Uncle Joe," had his own daily radio show on WSM and WSIX, featuring such popular artists as Anita Kerr, Brenda Lee, and Chet Atkins. In 1952 Allison moved to the Los Angeles area, where he took over singer Tennessee Ernie Ford's previous slot on KXLA, a radio station licensed out of Pasadena, California. While in California, Allison ventured into television, appearing on such shows as Town Hall Party on KTTV and hosting and coproducing his own program Country America on ABC, which featured such up-and-comers as Gordon Terry, Glen Campbell, and Billy Strange. It was during this time that he assisted in founding the Country Music Disc Jockey Association, the forerunner of the Country Music Association (CMA). Allison secured his reputation as a highly-regarded songwriter with a number of popular compositions. He wrote "Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young" for Faron Young in 1955. Teen idol Tommy Sands performed "Teen Age Crush" in 1957, and that same year Jeannie Black recorded "He'll Have to Stay." Allison's best-known song, "He'll Have to Go," was recorded by Jim Reeves in 1960 and spent fourteen weeks at Number 1 on the country charts and also reached Number 2 on the pop charts. In 1962 Hank Cochran scored a hit with "I'd Fight the World," which he co-wrote with Allison. That same song became a posthumous hit for Reeves in 1974. Allison's wife Audrey co-wrote a number of songs, including "Teen Age Crush," "He'll Have to Stay," and "He'll Have to Go." By the early 1960s, Allison worked both as a manager for Central Songs, a publishing company based in Hollywood, and as head of the country music division for Liberty Records. It was in this latter capacity that he signed Willie Nelson to the singer's first recording contract in 1960. Allison produced early recordings by Hank Cochran and helped revive western swing legend Bob Wills 's career. Allison also started an international country radio show on the Armed Forces Radio Network. He was integral in expanding country music's popularity by writing and producing sales presentations for CMA that persuaded advertisers and broadcasters to program country music in major markets across the United States. He successfully pitched the idea of a CMA awards program to network television. He was also instrumental in securing property from the city of Nashville for the first Country Music Museum and Hall of Fame. In the mid-1960s he was director of the country division of Dot Records. By the late 1960s, Allison was working as an independent producer, helping turn out such hit songs as Roy Clark's "The Tips of My Fingers" and "Yesterday When I Was Young," as well as Hank Thompson 's "Smoky the Bar." From 1970 to 1972 Allison headed the country music division at Paramount Records in Nashville. While there he signed popular country singer-songwriters Tommy Overstreet and Joe

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Heard, Bessie Rollins

1964

Bessie (Miss Bessie, Miss Bess) Heard, founder of the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary, daughter of John Spencer and Rachel Caroline (Wilson) Heard, was born at McKinney, Texas, on May 26, 1886. Her father, a native of Van Buren, Arkansas, had moved to McKinney after the Civil War . With his brother, S. D. Heard, he started the Heard Mercantile Company and other Collin County enterprises. Bessie had four sisters, two of whom died in infancy. She attended McKinney Collegiate Academy and, from 1903 to 1906, Mary Baldwin College in Stanton, Virginia. At the age of thirty she entered Parson's School of Interior Design in New York City. After graduation she worked for a few years for Hallaby Galleries in Dallas. Bessie Heard was a charter member of the McKinney Art Club, the Delphian Society, and the McKinney Garden Club. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in McKinney. In later years she was a life member of the National Audubon Society and belonged to many other conservation organizations. In 1916, as a young lady, she organized a birdhouse-building contest for local children, with prizes for the winners. She also conducted a tree-planting project around the town square. In 1937 she obtained a charter for the McKinney library and helped raise funds to buy books and purchase a building. She helped form a McKinney chapter of the American Red Cross during World War I and was active in it through World War II . Miss Bessie collected nature prints, including lithographs by John James Audubon , Chinese art, butterflies, rocks and minerals, and sea shells. She kept her collections in a room at home and would often invite groups in to see her collections and hear her talk about them. In her middle seventies, upon the advice of John Ripley Forbes, president of the Natural Science for Youth Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia, she founded her own museum, using her collections as a nucleus. In 1964 she set up a charitable foundation, purchased 207 acres of land south of McKinney, and, in her eightieth year, began building the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary. The facility opened to the public in 1967 and grew steadily afterward. In the 1980s the museum building comprised 25,000 square feet, with exhibits of natural history, nature art, and live native animals. By 1993 the wildlife sanctuary had grown to 273 acres with nature trails and a constructed wetland area. It attracted more than 75,000 visitors annually and carried on a variety of educational programs for all ages. Among many honors, Miss Heard was named McKinney Citizen of the Year (1966) and an honorary life member of the Texas Congress of Parents and Teachers (1971); she received the Founder's Award of the Natural Science for Youth Foundation (1973) and the Emily Smith Distinguished Alumna Award from Mary Baldwin College (1975). She died at her home in McKinney on March 22, 1988, just a few weeks short of her 102d birthday.

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Things to Do in McKinney

quirky 10.8 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The Ewing family TV mansion from the Dallas soap opera sits on two hundred acres in Parker Texas and is open for tours every day. JRs bedroom is there. The…
historical 13.5 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The filming location of TV's Dallas. JR Ewing lived here.
day trip
Day Trip to McKinney 🎭 (FULL EPISODE) S11 E12

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Sports in McKinney

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 6A · Boys Basketball · 2022

Mckinney — 2022 UIL 6A Boys Basketball State Champions

Most recent: 2022 6A

McKinney High School, nestled in the heart of McKinney, Texas, has established a notable presence in Class 6A boys basketball. The Lions have proudly captured one UIL state championship, a significant achievement for any program in the highly competitive Texas high school sports landscape. This success reflects the dedication found within the school's athletic programs.

The 2022 6A state championship stands as a high point for McKinney High School boys basketball. The team's journey through the challenging Class 6A bracket culminated in this prestigious title, bringing honor to the school and community. The accomplishment is a source of pride for the McKinney area.

State titles
2022
Most recent
2022
Class
6A
The moment

The McKinney High School boys basketball team secured the 6A state championship in 2022.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near McKinney

754 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore McKinney on the Map
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