Hugh & Vassie Ward.
The first essential people to the creation of Ward Parkway were the donors of the land. Unlike almost all other boulevard land in Kansas City, Ward Parkway was donated by the Wards to the city. Just as the city voted to annex the district and to accept the gift, Hugh Ward died. His widow, Vassie James Ward, determined to go through with the gift of approximately one-tenth of all land owned by the couple in order to create Ward Parkway. She asked only that it be named in her deceased husband’s honor. Vassie James Ward is also known as the founder of Country Day School for Boys and co-founder of Sunset Hill School for Girls, now combined as Pembroke Hill School.

© WHMC-KC, University of Missouri