Hubert L. Koker, 32°, K.C.C.H.
4616 Tropicana Avenue, El Paso, Texas 79924–3024

Before Francis J. Bellamy wrote and published the "Pledge of Allegiance" to our flag in 1892 and before it was included in Article 7 of the Flag Code of the United States Flag Association in 1922, various poems were used as verbal and printed salutes to our national flag the way the "Pledge" is today. One such poem "Old Glory" had wide acclaim before and during World War I. There may be some who recall reciting this poem as the U.S. Flag Code was not accepted by Congress until 1939 when Brother Bellamy's "Pledge of Allegiance" became official. The still-beautiful poem "Old Glory" is reprinted here as a nostalgic tribute to the "Stars and Stripes." 

 
Your flag and my flag, and how it flies today,
In your land and my land, and half the world away.
Rose-red and blood-red, its stripes forever gleam,
Snow-white and soul-white, the good father's dream.
Sky-blue and true-blue, with stars that gleam aright,
The glorified guidon of the day, a shelter thro' the night.
Your flag and my flag, O, how much it holds,
Your land and my land secure within its folds.
Your heart and my heart beat quicker at the sight,
Sun-kissed and wind-tossed, the red, the blue, the white.
The one flag, the great flag, the flag for me and you.
Glorified the whole worldwide—the red, the white, the blue.  
 

Hubert L. Koker (left)
served 22 years on active duty with the U.S. Army. A Mason since 1958, he is a member of the York Rite, Shrine, and several Appendant Bodies. He is Past Master of the Chapter and Commander of the Council in the El Paso, Texas, Scottish Rite Bodies where he also works as an Assistant Secretary.

Francis J. Bellamy (right)
The Reverend Francis J. Bellamy, the author of the "Pledge of Allegiance," was a member of Falls Lodge No. 181, Little Falls, New York. The Order of the Eastern Star erected a memorial tablet to him in 1955 in Oriskany, New York.