Bessie Locke

Bessie Locke (August 7, 1865 – April 9, 1952) was an American educator and businessperson. In 1909, she founded the National Kindergarten Association, which promoted universal acceptance of the public-school kindergarten.

Early life Locke was born in 1865 in West Cambridge, Massachusetts (today's Arlington), to William Henry Locke and Jane MacFarland Schouler. Her father was a printer,

She was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, working as a teenager as a bookkeeper, before attending Columbia University; she did not obtain a degree, however.

In 1892, she visited a kindergarten in New York City which was operated by an acquaintance of hers. Impressed by the results of the children's education, she founded the East End Kindergarten Union of Brooklyn and, later, the Brooklyn Free Kindergarten Society. In 1899, she organized the New York Kindergarten Society.

National Kindergarten Association Locke founded the National Association for the Promotion of Kindergarten Education in 1909. It became the National Kindergarten Association two years later. but later moved one mile north to 8 West 40th Street, on the southern side of Bryant Park. Locke's sister, May Aldrich, was the company's secretary and a director from the time of its establishment until her death, aged 80, in 1958.

One of several additional positions Locke held was as director of the National Council of Women of the United States. She was also an honorary vice-president of the International Council of Women.

Death Locke died in 1952, aged 86. She was buried in Hope Cemetery, Kennebunk, Maine, alongside her parents, who had retired to the town in the late 19th century, and several siblings. Her mother died in 1900, when Locke was around 35 years old; her father died in 1917, aged 79 or 80.

Her business remained in operation for the next 24 years, dissolving in 1976.