Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver

Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver (January 11, 1854 - October 18, 1944) was the designer and creator of the Missouri State Flag.

Marie Elizabeth Watkins was born in Ray County, Missouri to Charles Allen Watkins and Henrietta Rives Watkins. The family lived in a country home called Westover, and were fairly well off due to her father's work as both a farmer and businessman. Her father developed a number of businesses with her uncle, James R. Allen, including a brickyard, flour mill, sawmill, store, and warehouse. Marie was educated by a governess and at private schools, before attending Richmond College with her younger brothers.

Marie Watkins became the tutor for her brothers as they prepared to attend the University of Missouri. One of her brothers, Charles, roomed with a law student, Robert Burett Oliver, who would eventually become her husband. When Charles died, Robert began exchanging letters with Marie. They wrote for two years before eventually meeting in 1876. After a long courtship, the two were married on December 10, 1879. The two moved to Jackson, Missouri, where Robert worked as a lawyer until he was elected to the Missouri Senate in 1882. Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver had five sons and one daughter while living in Jackson: Robert Burett Jr., John Byrd, Allen Laws, William Palmer, Charles Watkins, and Marie Marguerite. During that time, Marie began volunteering throughout the community.

In 1896, Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver moved with her family to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where her husband established his law firm. In 1904, Oliver joined the Nancy Hunter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and in 1907 she was elected state DAR vice regent. In 1908, the state DAR noticed that Missouri did not have an official state flag, and Mrs. Samuel McKnight Green appointed a committee to research, design, and secure passage of a bill for an official flag.

Oliver was appointed chairperson of the committee, and began writing to the secretaries of state for every state and territory in the Union, in order to learn how other locations designed their flags, and the process necessary to have them adopted. She received an answer from every Secretary of State, and spent months researching historical interests connected to passing legislation about state flags. She envisioned a flag that featured the Missouri coat of arms, encircled by twenty four stars that represented Missouri's status as the twenty-fourth state to enter the Union. Marie's friend and artist, Mary Kochtitzky, painted Marie's design, and her husband, now a former state senator, drafted the legislative bill.

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