Moina Michael

{{Short description|American academic (1869–1944)}} [[File:Poppy-Memorial-1948.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Moina Michael on a 1948 U.S. [[commemorative stamp]]]] [[File:The Poppy Lady Georgia Historical Marker.jpeg|thumb|right|200px|The Poppy Lady Georgia Historical Marker]] '''Moina Belle Michael''' (August 15, 1869 – May 10, 1944) was an American [[professor]] and [[humanitarian]] who conceived the idea of using [[Papaver rhoeas|poppies]] as a [[Remembrance poppy|symbol of remembrance]] for those who served in [[World War I]].

==Early life== Michael was born in 1869 and lived on what is now known as 3698 Moina Michael Road in [[Good Hope, Georgia|Good Hope]], in [[Walton County, Georgia]]. She was the eldest daughter and second of the seven children of John Marion Michael, a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] veteran of the [[American Civil War]], and Alice Sherwood Wise.<ref>Hudson, Paul S., and Lora Mirza. "[https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/moina-belle-michael-1869-1944 Moina Belle Michael (1869–1944)]." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 15 February 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-15.</ref> 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 [[Huguenots|Huguenot]] ancestry, with origins in [[Brittany]] and [[Flanders]] respectively. Her family was wealthy and owned a cotton plantation until 1898. She was educated at Braswell Academy in [[Morgan County, Georgia|Morgan County]], and the [[Martin Institute]] in [[Jefferson, Georgia]].<ref>[http://www.greatwar.co.uk/people/moina-belle-michael-biography.htm Mlle Michael Biography (1869–1944)], greatwar.co.uk</ref>

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

==First World War== Michael visited Europe in June and July 1914. She was in Germany when the [[World War I|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|RMS ''Carpathia'']] and returned to teaching at Normal School in Athens, Georgia.

She was a professor at the [[University of Georgia]] when the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917. She took a leave of absence from her work and volunteered to assist in the New York-based training headquarters for overseas [[YWCA]] workers.<ref name=DLG>{{cite news | title =Moina Michael | publisher =Digital Library of Georgia/University of Georgia | url =http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/mmichael.htm | accessdate=2009-02-18}}</ref> ==Remembrance poppy== On 9 November 1918, inspired by the Canadian [[John McCrae]] battlefront-theme poem "[[In Flanders Fields]]", she wrote a poem in response called "[[We Shall Keep the Faith]]".<ref name=DLG /> In tribute to the opening lines of McCrae's poem – "In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses row on row," – Michael vowed to always wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in the war.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news | title =Where did the idea to sell poppies come from? | publisher =BBC News | date =November 10, 2006 | url =https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6133312.stm | access-date=2009-02-18}}</ref> After the war was over, Michael returned to the University of Georgia and taught a class of disabled servicemen. Realizing the need to provide financial and occupational support for these servicemen, she pursued the idea of selling silk poppies as a means of raising funds to assist disabled veterans. In 1921, her efforts resulted in the poppy being adopted as a symbol of remembrance for war [[veteran]]s by the [[American Legion Auxiliary]], and by [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]'s British Legion Appeal Fund (later the [[Royal British Legion]]) later that year.<ref name=BBC />

==Later life and legacy== Known as the "Poppy Lady" for her humanitarian efforts, Michael received numerous awards during her lifetime. She retired from the University of Georgia in 1934, and published an [[autobiography]] in 1941, ''The Miracle Flower: The Story of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy''.

In 1944, a [[Liberty ship]] constructed in Georgia was named SS ''Moina Michael'' in her honor. In 1948, four years after her death, the [[U.S. Postal Service]] issued a commemorative 3-cent stamp honoring her life's achievement. In 1969, the Georgia General Assembly named a section of [[U.S. Highway 78]] the Moina Michael Highway.<ref name=DLG /> In 1999 she was named to the [[Georgia Women of Achievement]] Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite news|title=Area News Briefs | date=March 22, 1999 | newspaper=[[Athens Banner-Herald]] | quote= As part of Women's History Month, the Georgia Women of Achievement and Shorter College will hold a joint program titled "Georgia Women Meeting Challenges" on Friday and Saturday at Shorter College, Rome....Two distinguished Georgians, Moina Belle Michael and Lillian Eugenia Smith, will be honored at the induction ceremony. Michael will be recognized for originating the use of the poppy as a universal symbol of tribute to the soldiers of World War I and as a teacher of Georgia's young women in the 20th century. }}</ref> She was a member of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] and the [[United Daughters of the Confederacy]].{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} A statue of Moina Michael is located in front of the [[Walton County Courthouse (Georgia)|courthouse]] in Monroe, Georgia. Moina Michael is buried in Rest Haven Cemetery, 200 North Madison Avenue in Monroe, GA.

==See also== *[[Lillian Bilsky Freiman]]

==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * {{Librivox author |id=10135}} * {{Find a Grave|9759}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michael, Moina}} [[Category:1869 births]] [[Category:1944 deaths]] [[Category:University of Georgia faculty]] [[Category:Columbia University alumni]] [[Category:Aftermath of World War I in the United States]] [[Category:American women in World War I]] [[Category:People from Walton County, Georgia]]