Blue stars on a red flag: Remembering Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ veterans
Campus treasures honor Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ's student veterans and those lost in the World Wars.
DALLAS (Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ) – Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ veterans of the two great World Wars are remembered on campus at memorials in quiet corners and in lovingly hand-stitched blue stars on a fragile wool service flag in the Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ Archives.
In 1917, as Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ students left their classrooms to fight in World War I, a librarian stitched a red wool service flag to honor the soldiers. Blue stars on the flag create a border and spell "Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ." The flag hung behind the reference desk in the one-room library in Dallas Hall, the first building on the two-year-old campus.
After the war ended, she covered 11 blue stars on the flag with gold stars to honor the 11 Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ students who were killed in the war.
The wool flag now is safely housed in the Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ Archives, and the 11 soldiers' names are listed on the "World War" monument near the Perkins Administration Building on campus. The Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ class of 1924 gave the monument long before anyone imagined a second world war.
In a quiet corner outside of Fondren Library on campus, bronze plaques honor the 134 Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ students who died during World War II. The memorial plaza was given in 1999 by Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ alumni Henry S. Miller Jr. '34 and Carmen Miller Michael '45 in honor of their brother, Lt. Jack Miller, a 1941 Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ graduate who was killed in action at Guadalcanal in 1942.
More than 170 current Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ students are veterans as we mark Memorial Day 2014, representing all branches of military service.
Media Contact:
Nancy George
Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ News & Communications
Tele.: 214-768-7650
Cell: 972-965-3769
ngeorge@smu.edu