Published May 23, 2026, 3:01 AM EDT
Moina Michael, a Georgia professor who became known as the Poppy Lady, spent decades fighting to make the red poppy a national symbol of sacrifice.
Every Memorial Day, millions of Americans pin small red poppies to their lapels without knowing the name of the woman who started it all. Moina Belle Michael, a Georgia schoolteacher, read a wartime poem two days before the end of World War I and launched a campaign that turned the red poppy into an enduring symbol of sacrifice. Her effort eventually reached more than 50 countries and raised billions of dollars for disabled veterans and their families.
A Planter's Daughter Who Became an Educator
Michael was born on Aug. 15, 1869, near Good Hope in Walton County, Georgia. She was the eldest daughter and second of seven children born to John Marion Michael and Alice Sherwood Wise. Her father was a Confederate veteran who had fought at the Battle of Chickamauga and returned home to run the family's cotton plantation. The Michael family had been in Georgia for generations, having first settled in Oglethorpe County in 1791 after emigrating from France as part of the Huguenot migration. She received her early education at Braswell Academy across the Morgan County line and later attended the Martin Institute in Jefferson. She started teaching at age 15 in Good Hope, where her first class included two of her own sisters and a brother.
