Willie Kavanaugh Hocker
{{Short description|Designer of the Flag of Arkansas}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2017}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Willie Kavanaugh Hocker
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1862|07|21}}
| birth_place = {{nowrap|Madison County, Kentucky, U.S.}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|02|06|1862|07|21}}
| death_place = {{nowrap|Jefferson County, Arkansas, U.S.}}
| resting_place = Bellwood Cemetery,
{{nowrap|Pine Bluff, Arkansas, U.S.}}
| resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|34|13|55.4|N|92|01|33.5|W|region:US-AR_type:landmark|display=inline}}
| occupation = {{hlist|Schoolteacher|poet}}
| known_for = Flag design
}}
Willie Kavanaugh Hocker (July 21, 1862 – February 6, 1944) was an American schoolteacher and designer of the Arkansas state flag.
Biography
Willie Kavanaugh Hocker was born in Madison County, Kentucky. Her father was a farmer. She and her family moved to Arkansas in 1870. After obtaining a teaching certificate in 1887, she taught school at Wabbaseka, Arkansas. Hocker died at her home in Jefferson County on February 6, 1944, at the age of 81.
Arkansas flag
{{Main|Flag of Arkansas}}
File:Flag of Arkansas (Hocker).svg
Hocker was a member of the Pine Bluff chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her chapter wanted to present the newly commissioned {{USS|Arkansas|BB-33|6}} with a state flag; however the chapter was informed that a state flag did not exist at all. Hocker, along with other citizens, sent flag designs to Earle W. Hodges, who was the Secretary of State. She proposed a red flag with a white diamond surrounded by a border of blue, 25 white stars in the blue and three blue stars inside the white diamond. The flag design committee suggested adding the name "Arkansas" to the flag. Hocker agreed; thus the first design of the state flag was born. After some changes to add a fourth blue star to the flag, to represent Arkansas's membership in the Confederate States, the final design was set in 1924.
See also
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{Find a Grave}}
- [http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2948 Willie Kavanaugh Hocker] at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas
{{Portal bar|Arkansas|Biography|Heraldry|Poetry}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hocker, Willie Kavanaugh}}
Category:19th-century American educators
Category:19th-century American poets
Category:19th-century Methodists
Category:20th-century American educators
Category:20th-century American poets
Category:20th-century Methodists
Category:Daughters of the American Revolution people
Category:Members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
Category:Methodists from Arkansas
Category:National Society of the Colonial Dames of America
Category:People from Jefferson County, Arkansas