The sale of red poppies on Memorial Day began almost immediately after the end of World War I, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields” by Lt. Col. John McCrae, a surgeon in the Canadian army. The poem was a reminder of the valor of the men and women who died in France in the “war to end all wars.”
The poem reads in part: In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard among the guns below.
Those poppies of Flanders Fields became the inspiration for distribution of silk poppies on days of remembrance in the United States and in France and England. The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars adopted their sale as national projects because, as recounted in several south Louisiana newspapers, “It was through fields of wheat and poppies that our troops charged at Vaux, Belleau Woods and Chateau-Thierry in June, July and August of 1918.” The flowers were sold for a dime in most communities where there were American Legion or VFW chapters, often by the women of the Legion auxiliary.
