Marie Elizabeth Oliver

Marie Elizabeth Oliver (January 11, 1854 - October 18, 1944) was the designer of the Missouri state flag.

Biography Marie Elizabeth ( Watkins) Oliver was born in Ray County, Missouri to Charles Allen and Henrietta (née 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. During that time, Marie began volunteering throughout the community.

In 1896, Oliver moved with her family to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where her husband established his law firm. In 1904, she joined the Nancy Hunter Chapter of the Missouri Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and in 1907 she was elected state vice regent. 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. Later that year, the Missouri State Capitol burned, destroying Kochtitzky's original work. Oliver and another friend, Mrs. S. D. MacFarland, recreated the design in silk. or 47 eminent Missourians depicted in the Missouri Wall of Fame, a mural in Cape Girardeau, Missouri painted by Margaret Dement in 1995; the names were selected by "a panel of the Cape's leading citizens".