Flags and Legends

Everyone is familiar with the story about Betsy Ross stitching the first American flag and presenting her creation to General George Washington as he traveled through Philadelphia.  That story is widely regarded as a legend promoted by a Ross descendant in the mid-1800s when people were avidly curious about our heroic Founding Dads and Moms.

But what about our current flag?  Who designed the 50-Star Flag?  An e-mail this morning answered a question I'd never asked!  As it turns out, it was designed right here in Michigan by Robert G. (Bob) Heft, then a high school student in Saginaw.  Bob Heft (1941-09) was 17 years old in 1958 when proposals for Alaska and Hawaii statehood were moving through Congress.  Heft's teacher made designing a new flag a class project.

Heft removed the canton (star field) from the family's 48-star flag, sewed in a new blue field, and used iron-on white fabric to add 100 stars, 50 on each side.  The model was sent to Heft's Congressman, who made the official submission.

Bob Heft in 2009 (Wikimedia Photo)

Curiously, Heft's teacher was not impressed and gave the young man a B-.  When Heft questioned the grade, the teacher said that if the student's design was accepted, his grade would be reconsidered.  In fact, the design was accepted and Heft received an A.  The teacher, Stanley Pratt, thus goes down in history as the man who rejected the design that the U.S. adopted.  Well, you can't win 'em all.

Some 1,500 flag designs were submitted for consideration, some with 49 stars, but most with 50.  A few were identical to Heft's design, but Heft got credit, perhaps because he submitted a handmade model, much as Betsy Ross is said to have done.  Most of the designs are in the Eisenhower Archives at Abilene, KS.  Heft appears to have retained the original of his design, but its whereabouts since his death is not indicated.

Heft went on to become a high school teacher, part-time college professor, and mayor of Napoleon, OH, for 28 years.  After retirement he worked as a motivational speaker.  Celebrated as the man who designed the American flag, he traveled about 100,000 miles each year giving speeches.  He died at Saginaw following a heart attack on December 12, 2009.

As for Betsy Ross, she was married three times.  Her first husband, John Ross, died early in the Revolutionary War.  Her second husband was captured and died in a British prison.  Her third husband died of apparently natural causes.  Through all this Betsy worked as an upholsterer in Philadelphia.  When her eyesight failed and she was forced to retire, Betsy lived with her daughter in Abington, PA, north of Philadelphia.  I, too, lived in Abington from about age 2-13, blissfully unaware that the famous Ms. Ross had lived there a few years earlier. •••