THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 4 | MAY 2025 One of the challenges of living through “history” is to recognize it as it passes. As a child growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I remember our local American Legion selling red silk poppies as a fundraising effort in my hometown of Skiatook. I do not recall making any connection between those red silk poppies and the deeply held appreciation my community had for the sacrifices of our military, nor do I recall making the intellectual connection between those sacrifices and what was then called “Decoration Day.” It was not until much later in life that I learned “In Flanders Fields” was the inspiration for the Veterans of Foreign Wars red silk poppies sales and that those items had been handmade by veterans as a source of income for hospitalized and disabled veterans. For me, Decoration Day was a trek to a small cemetery near Tahlequah, where my mother’s family shared maintenance responsibilities for a private cemetery where many of my mother’s family are buried. We dutifully “decorated” graves with flowers and spent time as a family remembering those no longer with us. This event was an extended family gathering that amounted to an annual family reunion and picnic at this very modest rural cemetery. My mother’s family did not have a strong military tradition, and my father’s family did not speak of their service during World Wars I and II, which may be why I did not make the connection in my early years. As I became involved in Boy Scouts, my adult leaders, who were ex-military, did a much better job of making the connection between Decoration Day and the sacrifices of fallen United States military men and women. Between the crosses, row on row That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. – Maj. John McCrae, “In Flanders Fields” As my lovely bride would be the first to tell you, TU’s petroleum engineering school did not expose me to much poetry, nor is poetry one of my passions today. However, this particular poem has always haunted me with its simple phrasing and evocation of a terrible battle. During World War I, Maj. John McCrae served in the Canadian Artillery Brigade as a surgeon in the Second Battle of Ypres, Belgium, and penned this poem in May 1915 after losing a comrade and former student. Maj. McCrae was not pleased with what he had written and discarded the poem, but a fellow officer rescued the poem and sent it to newspapers in England, where it was published. The inspiration for the visual images was wild poppies that sprung up in ditches in that part of Europe in the spring. In Flanders Fields, the Poppies Blow... From the President By D. Kenyon “Ken” Williams Jr. D. Kenyon “Ken” Williams Jr. is a shareholder and director at Hall Estill in Tulsa. 918-594-0519 kwilliams@hallestill.com (continued on page 64)
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