Moina Michael

Moina Belle Michael (August 15, 1869 – May 10, 1944) was an American professor and humanitarian who conceived the idea of using poppies as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in World War I.

Michael was born on what is now known as 3698 Moina Michael Road in Good Hope, in Walton County, Georgia. She was the eldest daughter and second of the seven children of John Marion Michael and Alice Sherwood. She was distantly related to General Francis Marion on her father's side, and the Wise family of Virginia state governors on her mother's side. Both sides of her family had Huguenot ancestry, with origins in Brittany and Flanders respectively. Her family were wealthy, and owned a cotton plantation until 1898. She was educated at Braswell Academy in the Morgan County, and the Martin Institute in Jefferson, Georgia.

She became a teacher in 1885, initially in Good Hope and then in Monroe, Georgia. She taught at the Lucy Cobb Institute and Normal School, both located in Athens, Georgia. She studied at Columbia University in New York City in 1912-13.

Michael visited Europe in June and July 1914. She was in Germany when the First World War broke out in August 1914, and travelled to Rome to return home to the US. In Rome, she assisted around 12,000 US tourists to seek passage back across the Atlantic. She returned to the US on the RMS Carpathia and returned to teaching at Normal School in Athens, Georgia.

...
Wikipedia