LANCASTER, Ohio, June 25 (DC Times Online) — For travelers who visit state capitols and other historic government buildings, the 50-star American flag has a backstory that starts in Lancaster, Ohio. Bob Heft, then a 17-year-old high school junior, said he designed the flag in a history class and later saw it fly over the White House and state capitols across the country.
What was Bob Heft’s project?
In his StoryCorps oral history, Heft said his teacher, Stanley Pratt, assigned a history project and he responded by sewing a new version of the U.S. flag with 50 stars. Heft said Pratt gave the project a B- and told him, “If you don’t like the grade, get it accepted in Washington then come back and see me.”
Heft also said he had watched his mother sew, but had never sewn himself before making the flag.
Why did the 50-star design matter?
The United States was about to add new states. Alaska became a state in January 1959, and Hawaii followed in August 1959. That made a 50-star flag the new version the country would need.
Heft said he sent his flag to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959 and asked him to adopt the design for the nation’s new flag. In the accounts quoted by Fox News and StoryCorps, Heft later received a thank-you letter from Wilton B. Persons, Eisenhower’s chief of staff.
How did the design become official?
According to Heft’s StoryCorps account, he later got a call saying the president had selected his design for the nation’s flag, and the teacher later changed the grade to an A. Ohio Magazine and other historical retellings place the official adoption on July 4, 1960.
That is the date the 50-star flag became the official U.S. flag.
Did Heft say his flag was the first one flown?
Yes, Heft said in later correspondence that he had made and flown the first 50-star flag in the United States and that it was first flown on March 7, 1959. The available snippets do not show full archival proof of that claim, so it remains Heft’s account as quoted in the reporting.
Fox News reported that Heft’s handmade flag was later flown over at least 40 state capitol buildings from 1960 to 1962, including in New York, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Utah, Nebraska and Alaska.
One of the most specific examples came from Texas. Fox News quoted Gov. Price Daniel as saying the flag flew over the Texas state capitol in Austin for five hours on Oct. 5, 1960, and would have stayed up all day except for rain and high wind.
What do Ohio and Washington, D.C., have to do with the story?
Ohio was Heft’s home state, and it remained part of the flag’s history. Fox News quoted Ohio Gov. Michael DiSalle as writing that he was “pleased to verify your story that yours was the first 50-star flag displayed in Ohio on Ohio property.”
Washington, D.C., is where Heft said he sent his design and where the flag was later honored. For visitors interested in U.S. history, that makes the story more than a classroom tale. It is also a reminder that the flag’s path ran through places people still visit today: the White House, the Capitol, and state capitols from coast to coast.
What should readers keep in mind?
The story is widely told, but the supplied materials do not include the full White House letter, the full Ohio governor’s letter or other complete archival records. The main facts come from Heft’s own statements, his StoryCorps oral history and official quotations cited in the reporting. Where the records are incomplete, the safest reading is simple: Heft said he designed the 50-star flag, and the flag he described later became part of public history across the United States.
