The texting feature on that brick phone was so rudimentary and labored it was MADDENING.
I'm old enough to actually own one of those phones when they were the best we had. It was a step up from the pagers. Played lots of Snakes while sitting on the toilet!
OP, just give up. I'm pretty sure at some point some company will come up with a redesigned dumb phone. In the meantime, the effort isnt worth it.