Who really created the American flag?
Was it Betsy Ross?
Or is there truth to the long-running claim that Bob Heft, a 17-year-old high school junior from Lancaster, Ohio, stitched the first 50-star version and sent it to the White House for consideration as the nation’s new Stars and Stripes?
“I, of course, designed the flag of our country, the current flag,” Heft once said. “It’s not just a piece of cloth, it’s the fabric of America.”
That fascinating, distinctly American tale is explored in the debut episode of “Crazy America History with Eric Shawn,” now available to stream on Fox Nation.
For many years, Bob Heft maintained that he was the person behind the design of the 50-star American flag. (Jeff Schrier/The Saginaw News via AP Photo)
Heft created the flag for a high school history assignment. In 1959, he mailed it to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, urging him to select the design as the official U.S. flag after Hawaii entered the Union as the 50th state.
Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Wilton B. Persons, replied with a letter of thanks. As Heft continued corresponding with White House officials, he argued that the design ultimately chosen by the president was his own.
“I made and flew the first 50-star flag in the United States,” he wrote. “The flag was first flown March 7, 1959, and there are none recorded before this date…it has been displayed in the White House in Washington and also the Governor’s mansion and capital building in our state of Ohio.”
The Ohio Historical Society honored Heft at his high school with this marker saying, “The design for the fifty-star flag was born here at Lancaster High School.” (Fox Nation)
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Heft, who died in 2009, spent his life touting his claim, speaking to school groups, veterans and reporters about his making the 50-star flag.
But is his story even true?
And why haven’t you heard of Bob Heft?
He did create his 50-star flag before the design’s official adoption by the Eisenhower administration, and he was able to get his flag flown over at least 40 state capitol buildings from 1960 to 1962. The states included New York, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Utah, Nebraska and Alaska. It flew for five hours over the Texas state capitol in Austin on Oct. 5, 1960, but Gov. Price Daniel wrote “it would have been displayed all day except for a rain and high wind which started about 12 p.m.”
Heft said President Eisenhower called him and said “I wanted to let you know that I selected your flag as the official flag of our country.” (AP Photo/Byron Rollins)
Ohio Gov. Michael DiSalle wrote Heft that he was “pleased to verify your story that yours was the first 50-star flag displayed in Ohio on Ohio property.”
But was Heft really the first, or were officials fooled?
It is the tale of the teenager who lived his life for Old Glory.
And wait until you see what we do with his flag at the end of our episode!
Watch “Crazy American History with Eric Shawn,” now streaming on Fox Nation.
