© 2024 KRCU Public Radio
90.9 Cape Girardeau | 88.9-HD Ste. Genevieve | 88.7 Poplar Bluff
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Almost Yesterday is a glimpse into the rich history of our region. Dr. Frank Nickell takes listeners on a journey to specific moments in time, such as the first radio broadcast on KFVS, the history of Farmington’s Carleton College, and the short-lived safari on a Mississippi River island. A gifted storyteller and local historian, Dr. Nickell’s wit and love for the past are combined with sounds and music that augment his narrative.On Saturday, June 7, 2008, Almost Yesterday received First Place in the "Special Programs" category at the Missouri Broadcasters Association Awards Banquet in Kansas City, Missouri.Almost Yesterday airs every Wednesday at 5:42 and 7:42 a.m. and 5:18 p.m.

Missouri Gets A State Flag

Southeast Missouri State University

It seems like almost yesterday that the state of Missouri acquired a state flag. The date was March 22, 1913, and this was part of a movement motivated by the development of aluminum flag poles, the 1893 Columbian exposition in Chicago, and the admission of three new states: Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona, all occurring in the early twentieth century.

Only a few states had an official flag prior to 1900, but with the availability of sturdy aluminum flag poles states could hoist their banners on high -- in a period of great national pride and rapid growth, Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut, Alabama, Colorado, and Tennessee adopted state flags between 1895 and 1911. Many of the campaigns to adopt official state flags were led by the daughters of the American Revolution and the colonial dames. Such was the case in Missouri. Marie Watkins Oliver of Cape Girardeau was the state regent of the Missouri DAR chapter and in 1908 she discovered that Missouri did not have an official state flag. At her home at 740 North Street in Cape Girardeau she examined existing state flags, studied flags in general [the science of vexillology] and designed a flag. Miss Mary Kochtitsky, a young art instructor at the Cape Girardeau Normal School painted the flag.

It was a four year process, but on January 21, 1913, Charles C. Oliver of Cape Girardeau County, a member of the Missouri Legislature, introduced the “Oliver Flag Bill” and on March 22, 1913, the flag that had been designed and made by Marie Watkins Oliver in the house at 740 North Street in Cape Girardeau became the official flag of the state of Missouri.

It seems like almost yesterday.
 

Frank Nickell is a retired history professor at Southeast Missouri State University.
Related Content
  • It seems like almost yesterday that 15 students from Southeast Missouri State University set out to dribble a basketball from Cape Girardeau, Missouri to Evansville, Indiana.
  • It seems like almost yesterday that the most devastating tornado in American history passed through Southeast Missouri. The F-5 tornado first touched down in Reynolds County, west of Ellington and stayed on the ground for approximately 220 miles, for three and one-half hours, crossing southern Missouri and Illinois, finally dissipating in southern Indiana.
  • It seems like Almost Yesterday that a young man from Farmington, Missouri, walked on to the pitcher’s mound in New York’s Yankee Stadium for the first…