Ida Mercedes Muse was born on March 9, 1886, in Bosque County, Texas, and moved with her family at an early age to Moran. She briefly attended the Unviersity of Texas, and married Bert Darden in 1904. Her daughter, Helen, was born in 1905. In 1906 her husband died. Over the years she was employed by financier J. A. Arnold. She also worked as a publicist, fund-raiser, and lobbyist for various conservative organizations, including the Texas Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. In 1920 she married Fort Worth businessman Walter Myrick.
In 1949 Darden founded The Southern Conservative, an extreme right-wing publication whose foremost crusade was anti-Communsim. Darden was opposed to United States membership in the United Nations; one headline of The Southern Conservative read "The United Nations is the Devil's Workshop". She was opposed to the Ku Klux Klan, yet also opposed the Civil Rights movement.
Darden ceased publication of The Southern Conservative in 1961. She died in 1980.
From the guide to the Ida M. Darden Collection MSS 0072., 1950-1961, (Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library)
