JACKSON GFWC MARKS MISSOURI DAY

Missouri Day is not the best known among holidays but it certainly has its share of devotees among the residents of Jackson.

In addition to a slate of Missouri Day activities which took place Wednesday at Jackson's West Lane Elementary, photos of which appear elsewhere in this edition, members of the Jackson chapter of the General Federation of Women's Clubs continued their tradition of marking the day by holding a Missouri Day ceremony and flag presentation at the U.S. Naval Reserve Station in Cape Girardeau.

"Being a small club, we are very civic minded," said Pat Abernathy, chair of the 12-member club's Missouri Day Committee. "Missouri Day is a holiday we feel doesn't get the proper boost each year so we decided to try to promote Missouri Day by presenting a Missouri state flag to a different organization each year.

In the past flags have been awarded to the city of Jackson, Cape Girardeau County and the Jackson American Legion post.

During yesterday's ceremony, members of the GFWC presented a state flag to Lieutenant Commander Donald Taylor of the Naval Reserve Center. In addition to leading those who attended in reciting a Pledge of Allegiance to the United States and Missouri flags, state GFWC corresponding secretary Frances Wessel was also on hand to relate the history of the Missouri flag.

What is interesting about the Missouri flag's history is the fact that it was designed by a prominent citizen of Jackson and a resident of the Oliver House, currently an historical site administered by the Jackson Heritage Association.

The flag was designed by Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver, a Jackson resident and the wife of former state Senator Robert Burrett Oliver.

According to a report prepared by her son Allen L. Oliver in the autumn of 1953, Mrs. Oliver undertook to design the flag as part of a Daughters of the American Revolution project begun in 1908.

According to Allen Oliver, the Daughters of the American Revolution appointed a committee and charged that committee with formulating a design for a state flag and, if possible, to secure the passage of a bill making it the official flag of the state.

After several months of work, Mrs. Oliver came up with the design which is still in use today. Adopted as the original flag of the State of Missouri March 22, 1913, the first flag was kept in Mrs. Oliver's home until her death in 1944, when it was given to the State of Missouri. It is now kept in a state vault and maintained by the office of the Missouri secretary of state.

Abernathy said her club did not realize this fact until after they had begun their tradition of observing the Missouri Day holiday. Knowing that the flag they present each year was the design of a fellow Jackson resident, however makes presenting it all the more meaningful for the Jackson group.

"We realized that the flag was designed by a Jackson woman as an afterfact," she explained, "but it does make the ceremony a little more special."