FLAG THAT WAVED FROM THE MAYFLOWER WILL WAVE BEFORE PRESIDENT HARDING'S HEARSE
Marion, Ohio (JFK+50) On August 10, 1923, The Evening Star reports "a great blue flag with four white stars that waved...from the masthead" of the presidential yacht Mayflower* "...will wave...before the hearse that carries (President Warren G. Harding) today to his tomb."
The flag, knit with heavy material suitable for sea duty, will be carried through the streets of Marion by Howard F. Carlson, chief radio operator of the Mayflower.
JFK+50 NOTE
Three famous Americans attended the funeral of President Harding in Marion, Ohio on August 10, 1923. They were Henry Firestone, Thomas Alva Edison and Henry Ford. The trio had been camping buddies of the President just two years earlier.
Other notables who attended included President Calvin Coolidge, former POTUS William Howard Taft, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes and General John J. Pershing.
*USS Mayflower, launched in 1896, served the US Navy in the Spanish-American War, WWI & WWII. She also was the presidential yacht for TR, Taft, Wilson, Harding & Coolidge.
SOURCES
"President's Flag From Mayflower To Go to Grave," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 10, 1923, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
"1923; President Warren G. Harding's Funeral," by Nathan Havenner, Ohio Life, July/August 2021, www.ohiomagazine.com/
