State to honor the ‘Betsy Ross of Missouri’

By St. Louis Post Dispatch via My Courier-Tribune

JEFFERSON CITY — The woman credited with creating the state flag of Missouri will soon have a bust in Missouri’s Hall of Famous Missourians.

Marie Watkins Oliver, known as the “Betsy Ross of Missouri,” designed the state’s flag and saw it adopted as the official version in 1913.

The flag blends red, white and blue to symbolize Missouri’s federal ties and local autonomy, with a central coat-of-arms reflecting the state’s geography.

Oliver was chosen for inclusion in the hall by House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres. An unveiling of the sculpture is slated for April 15 in the House chambers.

Oliver was born in Ray County in 1854 and married Cape Girardeau County attorney Robert Oliver in 1879.

According to a biography compiled by the State Historical Society of Missouri, Oliver began working on the flag in 1908 as part of her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution.

“Devoted to her task, Oliver wrote to the secretaries of state of every state and territory in the US, seeking information about how other states had designed their flags and had them officially adopted,” the biography notes.

Her husband, who was a state senator at the time, began working to get the flag adopted as the official flag. In 1911, the flag was approved in the Senate, but was destroyed when the State Capitol building burned.

Oliver made a new flag and the General Assembly approved it two years later.

Oliver died in 1944.

In addition to her bust being placed on the third floor of the Capitol, an exhibit honoring Oliver is also part of the Cape River Heritage Museum in Cape Girardeau.

Others in the Hall of Famous Missourians include author Laura Ingalls Wilder, broadcaster Walter Cronkite, musician Scott Joplin and radio personality Rush Limbaugh.

The legislation is House Resolution 4926.