Missouri Highway Day Lily

A few years ago O. D. "Dave" Niswonger gave Southeast MO University 3000 of his original creation hybrid "Missouri Highway Day Lily" to celebrate LaSalle Avenue and East Main reuniting Cape Girardeau and Jackson at I-55 Exit 102.

In the beginning it was three generations of the Niswonger family, Dave, his son John, and his grandson Joe, working the ground with a tiller in the hot sun.

Dr. Wesley Mueller of the Agriculture Department, his wife Claudia Mueller, with Southeast agriculture students and volunteers from the Mormon Church planted the design.

New life came to the project last week from the John Guild Chapter Daughter's of the American Revolution including Jan Chamberlain, Morgan Lake, Linda Hutson, Shirley Young, and Patsy Johnson donating 14 Knockout Roses and a beautiful Crepe Myrtle to create a blooming centerpiece of Niswonger's gift.

Here's some genealogy trivia. The families of Shirley Young and Dave Niswonger both arrived in Cape County on the Bollinger wagon train in 1800.