Despite the drizzle and the chill in the air, Lexington’s Main Street was packed at the 12th Street intersection on Oct. 6. Hundreds of Wentworth Military Academy alumni sat in reverent silence during the dedication of the WMA Museum, which had been in the works for a year.
Behind the crowd stood a contingent of cadets from the Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, sent as a show of support for Wentworth alumni. The Audrain County school is the last military school left in the state as of May 2017. At the start of the century there were three.
Kemper Military School in Boonville, once known as the “West Point of the West,” closed in 2002 due to financial struggles. Wentworth’s closing last year for similar reasons came as a shock to both students and alumni.
