Poppies’ popularity as Memorial flower grew out of WWI
For nearly 100 years, the poppy flower has been associated with Memorial Day.
The Oklahoman’s own Edith Johnson told the story of the Memorial Day poppy in her column on May 19, 1955:
On French terrain strewn with destruction and death the one living thing surviving the carnage of World War I was the red poppy that after the Armistice did its best to cover the rubble. Soldiers from countries that fought the Germans came to look upon this gay, dauntless flower as a symbol of the courage and sacrifice of fallen comrades. It was one of those men, Col. John McCrae, who was moved to write the verses, well-known and well-beloved in the English-speaking world, beginning:
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row.”
Over ragged shell-holes and graves these poppies grew. Around barbed wire entanglements and alongside the trenches. To our own soldiers the poppy became a sacred reminder of comrades whose lifeblood had been poured out on foreign soil, some of it around the roots of the flowers.
In long, tedious hours our wounded and hospitalized soldiers found a way to honor their comrades who had given their all to defend our freedom and at the same time a means of helping themselves and their families. They have made millions of poppies to be sold by girls and women from booths or in town and city streets.
First to distribute them was Miss Moina Michael, of Athens, Ga., a member of the staff of the YMCA Overseas Headquarters who gave them out in New York City on November 9, 1918, just two days before the signing of the armistice. Recipients of the flowers were men attending a YMCA conference.
In June 1919, a booth in Milwaukee was decorated with red poppies during the celebration of the homecoming of the 32nd division, U.S.A. A passerby, attracted by the bright red blossoms, put them in a buttonhole and left a coin in payment. This went on until the booth had to be redecorated. By the end of the day several hundred dollars had been left.
One who had participated in the decorating was Mrs. Mary Hanecy. As she viewed the stripped booth she go an idea. Why not sell poppies in the street just before Memorial day and raise money so sorely needed by veterans and their families. When she took this idea to George F. Plant, member of Post No. One in Milwaukee, he gave it his cordial approval . ...
When the American Legion Auxiliary held is first convention in Kansas City in October 1921, it adopted the poppy as its memorial flower. At a later day Miss Michael, first to give out the poppies; was decorated with the distinguished service medal of the auxiliary for having conceived of the idea of wearing the poppy in honor of the war dead. Later it became the memorial flower of other veteran’s organizations and the British Legion.
While the wearing of the red paper poppy does not seem as prevalent, the American Legion Auxiliary offers alternatives on their website at https://emblem.legion.org/Poppy-Program/products/746/ for those who want to “honor the fallen” and “support the living.”
On this Memorial Day, please pause and remember those heroes who gave their lives for our country.